Study on microwave absorption properties of metal-containing foam glass

Materials with the properties of electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption are attractive topics. In this work, we report that EM wave absorption composites, consisting of foam glass, zinc and zinc oxide, were prepared by sintering mixture of foam glass raw material and zinc powder. Microwave reflection loss of composite was calculated based on the permittivity in the range of 8.2–12.4 GHz. The results show that zinc-containing foam glass absorbs efficiently microwaves. The sample with zinc filler to foam glass mass ratio of 3/18 had a reflection loss below −10 dB in the range of 11.3–12.4 GHz, and the minimum reflectivity was −15.6 dB at both 12.0 and 12.4 GHz. Microwave absorption performances of specimens can be controlled by changing the ratio between zinc powder and foam glass mass. The detailed mechanism of the control was investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electrical microscopy (SEM) observations.