Synthesis and microwave absorption enhancement of BaTiO3 nanoparticle/polyvinylbutyral composites

Barium titanate (BaTiO3)-polyvinyl butyral (PVB) composites at various weight concentrations were prepared via ultrasonic probe sonicator. The sonication was carried out at 20 kHz and 70% amplitude for about 2 h and BaTiO3 nanoparticles were dispersed well in the mixture of PVB/ethanol under probe sonication. As a microwave absorbent, the microwave absorbing properties of the BaTiO3 nanoparticle-PVB composites with different mixture ratios of 5 wt.% (RAM1), 10 wt.% (RAM2) and 15 wt.% (RAM3) BaTiO3 were investigated based on transmission line theory in the frequency range from 1 GHz to 14 GHz. The minimum reflection loss (R-L) of the RAM1 reaches -3.47 dB at 5.57 GHz with a matching thickness of only 7.0 mm. For RAM2 with 4 mm and 4.2 mm thickness (t(m)), the R-L values are less than -10 dB obtained in the frequency 10.3-13.4 GHz. The RAM3 composite with 15 wt.% BaTiO3 mixture ratio shows a minimum reflection loss of -43.8 dB at 11.01 GHz with a -15 dB bandwidth over the extended frequency range of 10.2-13.2 GHz for a thickness of 2.8 mm and -44.2 dB at 4.77 GHz for a thickness of 6.5 mm.