Abstract

New nanocomposites have been successfully prepared based on polyester resin, including various metal oxides (ZnO nanorod bundles, Fe3O4 nanoparticles, and nano Fe3O4/ZnO) and Polyaniline (PANI) synthesized with different dopants. The microwave absorption properties of nanocomposites were investigated in X-band range. The Taguchi experimental design was used to study the effects of the type of metal oxide and that of PANI (doped with various acids) and the weight percent of metal oxide in PANI and that of filler (metal oxide and PANI) in polyester matrix on the microwave absorption properties with the absorber thickness of only 2 mm. The weight percent of metal oxide in PANI was found to be the most significant parameter, accounting for 45.611% of the total contribution of the four selected parameters. Fe3O4/ZnO as inorganic oxide, PTSA as dopant of PANI, 25 wt.% for inorganic oxide in PANI, and filler in the polyester matrix were selected as optimum conditions by Taguchi method. The sample prepared in optimal conditions had reflection loss of less than −10 dB (absorption >90%) and covering a frequency range of 8.4–11.6 GHz.