Effects of SiC coating on microwave absorption of novel three-dimensional reticulated SiC/porous carbon foam

Abstract SiC coating had key effects on designing and optimizing electromagnetic wave absorption properties of SiC films reinforced foam composites. In this paper, ultrathin three-dimensional reticulated SiC/porous carbon foam composite (3D-SiC/PCF) was prepared eventually, followed by the successive stable treatment, carbonization stage and chemical vapor deposition process. The results showed that the complex permittivities of 3D-SiC/PCF-II were much lower than that of PCF and 3D-SiC/PCF-I. Although the attenuation constant decreased with the induction of SiC coating, the impedance matching ratio increased. Besides, 3D-SiC/PCF-II possessed a better wave absorption performance, where the minimum reflection loss was −29.74 dB. At last, the influencing mechanism of both the impedance matching ratio and the attenuation constant behind was discussed to further probe the effect of the SiC content and provide suggestions for functional applications.