Synthesis and characterization of foam glass composites for electromagnetic absorption application

Abstract

This article deals with the synthesis and characterization of glass foams made from cullet loaded with carbon fibers for electromagnetic absorption application. All the raw materials used for this work come from recycling or reconditioning. Samples with different weight contents (between 0 and 10 wt%) of carbon fibers with 3 mm length are achieved and characterized. In this article, the structural and dielectric properties of elaborated composites are presented and discussed. A low density was obtained for all composites, with a density values between 210 and 520 Kg m−3. The scanning electron microscopy observation shows that the carbon fiber load does not decompose during the heat treatment used for the composites achievement; this result is confirmed by the gravimetric thermal analysis of the carbon fiber load. Dielectric characterization shows a linear evolution of the dielectric properties (permittivity and dielectric losses) as a function of the percentage of the carbon fibers load. The higher dielectric losses (tanδ=0.46 @ 10 GHz) are obtained for the composite loaded with 6 wt% of carbon fiber, with a permittivity of ε′=3.72. Simulation of absorption performance of monolayer and bilayer absorbers, using measured dielectric properties, is conducted. Simulation results show promising absorption performances with reflection loss lower than −10 dB in a large frequency range using 7 mm and 14 mm of, respectively, 2 wt% and 4 wt% carbon fiber loaded composites