Electromagnetic wave energies are consumed in the form of thermal energy, which is mainly caused by magnetic loss, dielectric loss and conductive loss. In this study, CNT was added to the nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials inducing a high magnetic loss, in order to improve the dielectric loss of the EM wave absorption sheet. Generally, the aspect ratio and the dispersion state of CNT can be changed by the pre-ball milling process, which affects the absorbing properties. After the various ball-milling processes, 1wt% of CNTs were mixed with the nanocrystalline base powder, and then further processed to make EM absorption sheets. As a result, the addition of CNT to Fe-based nanocrystalline materials improved the absorption properties. However, the increase of ball-milling time for more than 1h was not desirable for the powder mixture, because the ballmilling caused the shortening of CNT length and the agglomeration of the CNT flakes.
The electromagnetic wave absorption sheets were fabricated by mixing of nanocrystalline soft magnetic powder, charcoal powder and polymer based binder. The complex permittivity, complex permeability, and scattering parameter have been measured using a network analyzer in the frequency range of 10 MHz10 GHz. The results showed that complex permittivity of sheets was largely dependent on the frequency and the amount of charcoal powder : The permittivity was improved up to 100 MHz, however the value was decreased above 1 GHz. The power loss of electromagnetic wave absorption data showed almost the same tendency as the results of complex permittivity. However, the complex permeability was not largely affected by the frequency, and the values were decreased with the addition of charcoal powder. Based on the results, it can be summarized that the addition of charcoal powder was very effective to improve the EM wave absorption in the frequency range of 10 MHz1 GHz.
In order to increase the magnetic loss for electromagnetic(EM) wave absorption, the soft magnetic (at%) alloy strip was used as the basic material in this study. The melt-spun strip was pulverized using an attrition mill, and the pulverized flake-shaped powder was crystallized at for 1h to obtain the optimum grain size. The Fe-based powder was mixed with 2 wt% , wt% carbon black, and polymer-based binders for the improvement of electromagnetic wave absorption properties. The mixture powders were tape-cast and dried to form the absorption sheets. After drying at for 1h, the sheets of 0.5 mm in thickness were made by rolling at , and cut into toroidal shape to measure the absorption properties of samples. The characteristics including permittivity, permeability and power loss were measured using a Network Analyzer(N5230A). Consequently, the properties of electromagnetic wave absorber were improved with the addition of both and carbon black powder, which was caused by the increased dielectric loss of the additive powders.