On the Study of Surface Fluorinated α -Fe₂O₃ for Microwave Absorption

TLDR: The MW absorption characteristics of fluorinated surface fluorinated Fe are found to be superior to pristine and a potential candidate as radar absorbing material (RAM) for the first time.

Abstract: This article involves microwave (MW) absorption characteristic investigation of surface fluorinated iron oxide, synthesized via the hydrothermal method and compared with pristine $\alpha $ -Fe2O3. The MW absorption characteristics are studied by measuring real and imaginary parts of both permittivity ( $\varepsilon$ ) and permeability ( $\mu $ ) for pristine $\alpha $ -Fe2O3 and surface fluorinated Fe2O3 in the frequency range of 5.85–18 GHz. The imaginary part of permeability ( $ {\mu }_{\mathrm {r}}^{''}$ ) and the magnetic loss tangent value ( ${\tan} {\delta }_{ {\mu }}$ ) of surface fluorinated Fe2O3 are found to be superior to pristine $\alpha $ -Fe2O3. The maximum reflection loss (RL) in surface fluorinated Fe2O3 is observed at different frequencies as a function of sample’s thickness, for example, RLs −18 dB at 7.5 GHz ( $t = 3.5$ mm) and −12 dB at 9 GHz ( $t = 3$ mm), respectively. These characteristics make this material a potential candidate as radar absorbing material (RAM) both in $C$ -band and $X$ -band. For the first time, the MW absorption characteristics of fluorinated $\alpha $ -Fe2O3 have been demonstrated, which are the novel study in itself.