Preparation and mechanical properties of absorbing composites based on nickel plated fabric

A high purity Ni plating layer was obtained on the surface of the plain cotton fabric by electroless nickel plating. The micromorphology and elemental composition of the Ni plating layer were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Structural absorbing composites with glass fiber (GFs)/epoxy resin (EP) as permeable layer, nickel coated fabric/EP as absorbing layer and carbon fiber UD cloth (UDCFs)/EP as reflecting layer were prepared by vacuum assisted resin perfusion (VARI). The effects of different thicknesses on the microwave absorption properties and mechanical properties of composites were investigated. The results show that the lowest reflection loss (RL) is −31.02 dB, the effective absorbing bandwidth (RL < −10 dB) is 6.21 GHz (11.55 GHz - 17.76 GHz), and the maximum tensile and bending loads endured are 41.36 KN and 1.63 KN at 15.14 GHz with a thickness of 2.5 mm, which provides a good reference value for the subsequent preparation of magnetic/dielectric composites with both excellent microwave absorption and mechanical properties.