Flaky FeSiAl alloy-carbon nanotube composite with tunable electromagnetic properties for microwave absorption

Flaky FeSiAl alloy/multi-wall carbon nanotube (FeSiAl/MWCNT) composite was fabricated by facile and scalable ball milling method. The morphology and electromagnetic properties of the FeSiAl alloy can be well tuned by controlling the milling time. It is found that the magnetic loss of the FeSiAl alloy is improved by optimizing the milling time due to the increased anisotropy field. Meanwhile the addition of MWCNTs enhances the dielectric loss of the composite by increasing the interfacial polarizations, dipolar polarizations and conductive paths. Relative to conventional FeSiAl absorbers, the FeSiAl/MWCNT composite exhibits greatly improved microwave absorption performance with advantages of strong absorption and small thickness. The minimum reflection loss of the composite reaches -42.8 dB at 12.3 GHz at a very thin thickness of 1.9 mm.