Preparation and microwave absorption performance of SiC aerogel via sol-gel and carbonization reduction process

Abstract

SiC aerogel presents several advantageous features like lightweight and high temperature resistance when applied as microwave absorbing material. In this paper, SiC aerogel was prepared eventually followed by the sol-gel and carbonization reduction process. The results showed that the effective electromagnetic microwave absorption capacity of SiC aerogel was highly increased after being pyrolyzed at 1500 °C, which presented a minimum reflection loss value of −57.80 dB at 3.10 mm and 9.86 GHz. Besides, the electromagnetic parameters of SiC aerogel with different paraffin ratios were discussed as well as the varying electromagnetic microwave absorption performances. The minimum reflection loss value first rose then fell as the SiC/paraffin ratio increased, which demonstrated the importance of SiC content. This study establishes the theoretical foundation for the subsequent functional application of SiC aerogel.