Electromagnetic wave-absorbing of polymer derived rod-like ZrB2 ultrahigh-temperature ceramic composites

Abstract

Ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are candidates that can be used in extremely high temperature environments relative to the Si-based ceramic due to their excellent high-temperature performance. However, there are few researches on the electromagnetic wave absorption of the UHTCs themselves. In this work, rod-like ZrB2 and its composites were prepared by polymer derived method at a lower temperature. The phase composition and electromagnetic wave absorption properties of the ceramics at different pyrolyzed temperatures were analyzed. The rod-like ZrB2 pyrolyzed at 1500 °C shows a RLmin of −54.77 dB at a thickness of 4.7 mm. The rod-like ZrB2/SiC has an absorption bandwidth of 5.68 GHz (RL <-10 dB, 7.6–13.28 GHz) at a thickness of 4.25 mm, exceeding the X-band. An absorption bandwidth of 2.24 GHz for RL <-20 dB (99% absorbed) was obtained by the fabricated composites. The strong absorption of rod-like ZrB2/SiC composites is due to the strong conductive loss and multiple scattering of electromagnetic wave by the rod-like network structure. The formation of core-shell ZrB2/SiC increases the polarization and enhance the electromagnetic wave absorbing properties of the ceramics. The results of this study show that the polymer derived UHTCs have the strong ability to absorb electromagnetic wave.