Dielectric and microwave absorption properties of ZrB2/Al2O3 ceramic composite

Electromagnetic pollution has become a major problem affecting human health, which requires the scientific community to characterise materials that can solve this problem. In the present work, we studied the microwave absorption properties and complex permittivity of ZrB2/Al2O3 ceramic composites in the X-band by simulation. The composites studied are based on alumina and reinforced with ZrB2 particles. The concentration of ZrB2 particles by volume in these composites are 0%, 5%, 10% and 15%. The results obtained show, on the one hand, that the complex permittivity depends on the frequency, and on the other hand, the high content of ZrB2 remarkably increases the complex permittivity and improves the microwave absorption properties. The ZrB2/Al2O3 composite with 5% by volume of ZrB2 particles has better microwave absorption property than others. In this case, the minimum reflection loss is -26.36 dB at 11.5 GHz. For this composite, the RL bandwidth of less than -10 dB is 1.72 GHz, and it is obtained in the frequency range from 9.4 GHz to 10.5 GHz. The simulation results are in good agreement with the published experimental results. In addition, they indicate that the composites studied are favourable for microwave absorption applications in the X band.