Preparation and study on radar absorbing materials of nickel-coated carbon fiber and flake graphite

Radar absorbing materials of nickel-coated carbon fiber (NCF) and nickel-coated flake graphite (NFG) were fabricated by electroless plating. Sufficient activation sites were vital to deposit a continuous and uniform coating layer. The morphology of the CF (FG) and NCF (NFG), Pd element content on the CF surface, the element components and the phases in the coating layer, magnetic properties of the NCF and NFG were examined by FESEM, EDS, XRD and VSM, respectively. The absorption properties of the samples were measured over the frequency range of 8–18 GHz by the RAM reflectivity far field RCS method. NCF and NFG exhibit good absorption performances in high frequency. Specifically, the reflection loss (R.L.) of NCF (30%) less than −10 dB begins from 14.4 to 18 GHz and the R.L. is below −14 dB at 18 GHz.