Investigation of Microwave Absorption Properties on Oil Palm Shell-derived Activated Carbon

The demand of microwave and radar-absorbing materials has increased in military and electronics applications. Microwave absorber, as well as radar absorber material, has been studied recently to overcome the EMI problem. An absorber material with lightweight, thin, eco-friendly, broadband, and high absorption efficiency are highly desirable to fabricate the radar absorber. Biomass-based activated carbon is known to have excellent absorption performance. In this manuscript, we investigate the microwave absorption properties in the X-band region from 8 GHz to 12 GHz of oil palm shell (OPS)-derived activated carbon. We found the enhancement S11 parameter up to -32.61 dB after the OPS transformed into activated carbon OPS through KOH activation and physical carbonization. The porous structure of activated carbon OPS corresponds to the better microwave absorption properties that correlate with better attenuation and impedance matching. This result shows that OPS-derived activated carbon is a promising lightweight, nature-based material for radar absorber applications.