Comparison of Carbon-Based Nano Materials as Conductive Fillers for Single Layer Microwave Absorber

In this paper, we have studied the permittivities of E-glass fabric/epoxy composite laminates containing three different types of carbon-based nano conductive fillers such as carbon black (CB), carbon nano fiber (CNF) and multi-wall carbon nano tube (MWNT). The measurements were performed for permittivities at the frequency band of 0.5 GHz ~ 18.0 GHz using a vector network analyzer with a 7 mm coaxial air line. The experimental results show that the complex permittivities of the composites depend strongly on the natures and concentrations of the conductive fillers. The real and imaginary parts of the complex permittivities of the composites were proportional to the filler concentrations. But, depending on the types of fillers and frequency band, the increasing rates of the real and imaginary parts with respect to the filler concentrations were all different. At the frequency of 10 GHz, the rates in the CNF filled composite and the MWNT filled composite were much larger then those of the CB filled composite. Between the CNF filled composite and MWNT filled composite, however, the former showed a little higher increasing rates than the other. These different rates can have great effect on the thickness in designing the single layer microwave absorbers. The effect of the different rates was examined by using Cole-Cole plots; the plot is composed of a single layer absorber solution line and permittivity lines of these three types of composites.