Electromagnetic and microwave absorption properties of Ti3SiC2 powders decorated with Ag particles

Abstract Herein, we synthesized Ti3SiC2/Ag composite powders by electroless silver plating. The phase composition and morphology of the powders were characterized. It verified that Ag particles were attached on the surface of Ti3SiC2 powders. By measuring the complex permittivity and calculating the reflection loss, we found the dielectric constant of Ti3SiC2/Ag rises with the increasing Ag content. As the weight ratio of Ag increases from 0 to 30 wt%, the real part raises from 7.1 to 13.7 while the imaginary part enhances from 1.0 to 3.6. For the mixture containing Ti3SiC2-30 wt%Ag powders with a thickness of 2.0 mm, the reflection loss is the minimum and the RL value is −24 dB at 10.9 GHz. In addition, the minimum value of RL continuously moves to lower frequency region as the thickness increases. So we can adjust the microwave absorption performance of Ti3SiC2/Ag composite powders by changing the thickness and Ag content.