Page 88 - MSAM-3-3

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Wide-angle broadband metamaterial absorber

with carbon black-carbonyl iron/polylactic
acid composites fabricated by fused filament

fabrication

1,2
1,2
Fei Wang , Qianfeng Zhou , Hongsheng Liu , Pengfei Fang ,
1,2
1,2
Kaiyong Jiang , and Peifeng Li *
3
1,2
1 Fujian Key Laboratory of Special Energy Manufacturing, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
2 Xiamen Key Laboratory of Digital Vision Measurement, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
3 James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Abstract

A complex composite structure comprising periodic stepped square hole (SSH)
units was designed to achieve wide-angle broadband microwave absorption. The
SSH structure serves as a metamaterial absorber and was fabricated with carbon
black, carbonyl iron powder, and polylactic acid composite by fused filament
fabrication 3D printing. Only 50 wt% addition of loss material was required in the
composite filament. Electromagnetic simulation was developed to investigate the

*Corresponding author: effect of geometric parameters of the SSH structure on the microwave absorption
Peifeng Li performance, using the measured complex permittivity and permeability of the
(peifeng.li@glasgow.ac.uk) composite as the input. The geometric parameters were optimized for absorption
Citation: Wang F, Zhou Q, Liu H, reflection loss and bandwidth in the electromagnetic simulation. The simulation
Fang P, Jiang K, Li P. Wide-angle revealed that the optimal SSH structure with a height of 18 mm can achieve a –10 dB
broadband metamaterial absorber absorption bandwidth of 14.032 GHz in the frequency range of 2 – 18 GHz with a
with carbon black-carbonyl iron/
polylactic acid composites reflectivity peak (−45.74 dB) at 15.056 GHz. The optimal structure can sustain strong
fabricated by fused filament absorption and broadband performance with incident angles of 0 – 50° for both
fabrication. Mater Sci Add Manuf. transverse electric polarization and transverse magnetic polarization. The simulation
2024;3(3):4158
doi: 10.36922/msam.4158 results were verified by reflectivity experiments on the SSH structure with optimal
geometric parameters. This work provides an effective and promising approach for
Received: 06 July 2024
the practical application of strong broadband and wide-angle microwave absorption.
Accepted: 26 August 2024
Published Online: September 27, Keywords: Metamaterial absorber; 3D printing; Stepped square hole; Wide-angle
2024
absorption; Broadband absorption
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, 1. Introduction
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is Broadband, wide-angle, efficient, and lightweight microwave absorbers are urgently
properly cited. needed for the development of radar stealth, electromagnetic shielding, wireless
1-3
Publisher’s Note: AccScience communication, and other technologies. Due to the limitation of thickness and single
Publishing remains neutral with absorption mechanism, conventional wave-absorbing coatings have been unable to
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional meet these requirements. The wave-absorbing effect can be enhanced by using different
4
5
affiliations. types of absorbing agents, such as dielectric loss (silicon carbide, silicon nitride ),
Volume 3 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/msam.4158