A self-setting particle-stabilized porous ceramic panel prepared from commercial cement and loaded with carbon for potential radar-absorbing applications

Abstract

Porous ceramic materials are in a current research focus because of their outstanding thermal stability, chemical stability and lightweight. Recent research has widened the range of applications to radar absorption to utilize the advantages of porous ceramic materials. There has been long-standing interest in the development of lightweight radar-absorbing materials for military applications such as camouflaging ground-based facilities against airborne radar detection. Therefore, in this study, a novel lightweight radar-absorbing material for X-band frequencies was developed using a self-setting particle-stabilized porous ceramic panel composited with carbon. The panel was prepared using a commercial calcium aluminate cement (as a self-setting matrix), zeolite 13X particles with propyl gallate (as a particle-stabilized pore former) and carbon (as a radar-absorbing material). The panel contained macropores approximately 200 to 400 µm in size formed by zeolite 13X particles that are irreversibly adsorbed at liquid-gas interfaces. The self-setting particle-stabilized porous ceramic panels were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, mercury porosimetry, physisorption analysis, capillary flow porosimetry and network analysis. When 0.2 wt.% carbon was added to a selfsetting particle-stabilized porous ceramic panel to fabricate a composite 7 mm thick, the maximum reflection loss was −11.16 dB at 12.4 GHz. The effects of the amount of added carbon and the thickness variation of a self-setting particle-stabilized porous ceramic panel on the radar-absorbing properties remain important issues for further research.

Shungite - a carbon-mineral rock material: Its sinterability and possible applications

“…Lossy materials, like the sintered samples presented here, can be used in radiofrequency (RF) and microwave engineering as absorbers of electromagnetic waves, which can be implemented in the design of attenuators, matched loads and other similar components. SiC-based materials were considered and used for lowreflection terminations in waveguides [21,23] as well as for radar absorbers [24]. We investigated other possibilities of applications, using numerical simulators of electromagnetic structures [25].…”

Preparation of Porous Materials by Magnesium Phosphate Cement with High Permeability

“…Cement-based foam material has high heat capacity, excellent fire resistance, and low cost and is usually used in building energy efficient materials because of its lightweight and thermal insulation properties [1,2]. It has also been widely applied in acoustic insulation [3,4], electromagnetic wave absorbing material [5], and safety block material [6]. In recent years, magnesium phosphate cement has also been developed to prepare porous materials to obtain foamed concrete for cast-in-situ construction and high-temperature resistance of cement-based porous materials [7].…”