Electromagnetic properties of flake-shaped Fe-Si alloy particles prepared by ball milling

Flake-shaped Fe–Si alloy particles with high aspect ratios were fabricated by ball milling commercially available Fe–Si powder, aiming to fabricate high-performance microwave absorbing fillers for coatings applied in 1–4GHz range. To compare with spherical particles, higher permittivity and permeability was observed by using flaky particles as fillers. High aspect ratios contributed to an enhanced dielectric relaxation in the 1–4GHz band, resulting in an increased permittivity. The thin thickness together with the high resistivity of Fe–Si flakes was believed to be helpful for suppressing the effect of eddy current and thus lead to an increase in the permeability. The electromagnetic wave absorbing (EMA) performances were observed to be enhanced. With a thin thickness of 2mm, a wide absorption band with a minimum reflection loss of −12dB was achieved in 1–4GHz range, when using 75wt% of flaky Fe–Si particles as fillers. The study indicated that flake-shaped Fe–Si particles were a promising candidate for EMA materials in L and S bands.