Anisotropic binary TiB2-SiC composite powders: Synthesis and microwave absorption properties

Microstructure control and multiple compounding methods in the synthesis stage can enhance microwave absorption performance of microwave absorbents. In this work, we successfully synthesized binary TiB2-SiC (TsBC) powders with hexagonal sheet (TiB2) and particle (SiC) interlocking structures by sol-gel carbothermal reduction method. We investigated the effect of raw material ratio and synthesis temperature on the synthesized powders and evaluated the microwave absorption properties of the synthesized TsBC powders. It was found that the TsBC absorber exhibited excellent microwave adsorption properties with the minimum Reflection Loss (RL) reached -21.8 dB at 17.4 GHz corresponding to the thickness of 4 mm. This excellent performance was attributed to the interfacial polarization between TiB2-SiC interfaces and the multiple reflections between the sheet-particle interlocking structures.