Microwave absorption of nanosized barium ferrite particles prepared using high-energy ball milling

The M-type hexagonal barium ferrite powder was obtained after the calcination of precursor, which was prepared with self-propagating high-temperature synthesis. Using high-energy ball milling, the powder size was turned into nanoscale. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and vector network analyzer were used to analyse its structure and microwave absorption property. The results indicate that the nanoscale milled barium ferrite improves microwave loss by 8 dB and broadens the frequency bandwidth with loss above − 10 dB by 5.3 GHz. The mechanisms of improvement caused by nanometer size were explained.