Synthesis of nanosized barium titanate/epoxy resin composites and measurement of microwave absorption

Barium titanate/epoxy resin composites have been synthesized and tested for microwave absorption/ transmission. Nanocrystalline barium titanate (BaTiO3 or BT) was synthesized by the hydrothermal method and the composites of BT/epoxy resin were fabricated as thin solid slabs of four different weight ratios. BTwas obtained in the cubic phase with an average particle size of 21 nm, deduced from the X-ray diffraction data. The reflection loss (RL) and transmission loss (TL) of the composite materials were measured by the reflection/transmission method using a vector network analyser R&S: ZVA40, in the frequency range 8·0–18·5 GHz (X and Ku-bands). The RL was found to be better than −10 dB over wide frequency bands. The higher RL for lower concentration of BT could be due to increase in impedance matching effects. Low TL values indicate that the absorption by BT is quite low. This could be due to formation of BT in the cubic paraelectric phase.