556

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 50, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008

EMC Impact of Advanced Carbon Fiber/Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites for Next-Generation Aerospace Applications
Igor Maria De Rosa, Fabrizio Sarasini, Maria Sabrina Sarto, Senior Member, IEEE, and Alessio Tamburrano, Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents a comparative analysis of the electromagnetic properties of new composite materials that are of interest to future aircraft/aerospace structures. The fabrication process of single-phase and new multiphase micro/nanocomposites is described. Carbon black, carbon bers, and multiwall carbon nanotubes are randomly mixed into an epoxy resin matrix at various weight fractions and compositions. The experimental characterization in the frequency range 818 GHz shows that the dispersion characteristics of short-carbon-ber-reinforced composites can be properly controlled by the addition of nanopowders and nanotubes into the mixture. Numerical simulations demonstrate the feasibility of the fabricated materials for the design of new electromagnetic micro/nanostructured shields and radar-absorbing laminates. Thin dielectric Salisbury screens are especially designed to exhibit minimum reection coefcient at 15 GHz. It shows that the total thickness of the screen can be reduced below 2 mm by using a lossy sheet made of three-phase composites. Index TermsAdvanced composite materials, aircraft, multiwall carbon nanotubes, radar-absorbing materials, shielding.

I. INTRODUCTION

RESENTLY, advanced composite materials are widely used in the aerospace industry for both structural and functional applications. The new challenges posed by full-composite aircraft like the Boeing 787 and the Airbus 380 have pushed the development of new micro/nanostructured composite materials, simultaneously satisfying electromagnetic (EM) and mechanical requirements. Moreover, in both military and civil applications, great attention has been paid to the development of lightweight thin laminated radar-absorbing materials (RAMs) to reduce radar cross section (RCS) and eliminate both electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems.

Manuscript received November 21, 2007; revised February 18, 2008. I. M. De Rosa and F. Sarasini are with the Department of Chemical Engineering-Materials-Environment, Sapienza University of Rome and with Research Center on Nanotechnology Applied to Engineering (CNIS), 00184 Rome, Italy. M. S. Sarto is with the Research Center on Nanotechnology Applied to Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome (CNIS), 00184 Rome, Italy, and also with the Joint Laboratory on Micro/Nanotechnologies for Industrial Applications, Sapienza Innovation Consortium, 00184 Rome, Italy (e-mail: mariasabrina.sarto@uniroma1.it). A. Tamburrano is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome and with the Research Center on Nanotechnology Applied to Engineering (CNIS), 00184 Rome, Italy. Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TEMC.2008.926818

Conducting composites made of short carbon bers (CFs) embedded in polymer matrix have been extensively studied for these applications due to the possibility of tailoring their electrical properties [1][3]. In fact, short CF composites permit high values of dielectric constant at a low concentration of lling agent to be obtained. In particular, by varying the geometry and volume fraction of the CFs, it is possible to modify and separately control the real and imaginary parts of the complex effective permittivity of the composite [4][7]. Recent studies have demonstrated that wideband thin dielectric Salisbury screens, for the 818 GHz frequency range, can be obtained by using as a lossy sheet a thin layer of epoxy resin (EPR) reinforced with CFs having length of 4 mm and diameter of 7 m [8]. For lower frequencies, the need to use CFs with higher aspect ratio makes such solution unfeasible. In fact, uniformity and isotropy of the composite degrade as the ber length increases over a few millimeters. In order to overcome such limitations of traditional carbonber-reinforced materials, micro- and nanoreinforced composites have been widely investigated. In particular, composites made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) dispersed in polymeric matrices have gained notable attention in the scientic and industrial communities due to their high mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties at relatively low CNT concentrations [2], [9], [10]. In comparison with traditional engineering materials, CNT composites have several advantages owing to their capability of tailoring the dielectric properties and lightening the structure without reducing mechanical properties. The outstanding electrical properties of CNTs are ascribed to the high aspect ratio, which is generally in the 101000 range and enables electrical percolation in CNT-loaded polymers at CNT concentration of a few percent in weight [11]. However, one critical aspect in the practical use of CNTs in composites consists of achieving homogeneous and random dispersion of the CNTs within the polymer matrix, owing to the intermolecular van der Waals interactions that tend to aggregate the CNTs into microparticles with lower aspect ratio. Recent studies have highlighted that biphasic composite materials, reinforced with both carbon black (CB) powders and CNTs, can be characterized by a relative effective permittivity up to a few tens in the range 118 GHz [12]. However, the performance of the composite is strongly affected by the dispersion of the nanoparticles inside the matrix, and the loss tangent of such a material cannot be tailored independently from the

0018-9375/$25.00 2008 IEEE

DE ROSA et al.: EMC IMPACT OF ADVANCED CARBON FIBER/CARBON NANOTUBE

557

TABLE I COMPOSITION OF THE MANUFACTURED AND TESTED COMPOSITE SAMPLES

absolute values of the real and imaginary parts of the relative effective permittivity. In this paper, a comparative analysis of the EM properties of single-phase and multiphase composites is performed in order to derive guidelines for the optimum design of such materials considering specic EMC applications. In particular, it is shown that the dispersion characteristics of CF composites can be properly controlled by adding to the mixture nanopowders and multiwall CNTs instead of increasing the length of the bers. First, the sample preparation process is described briey. Next, the results of the experimental characterization of the EM properties of single-phase and multiphase micro/nanocomposites are presented and discussed. Finally, numerical simulations are performed in order to demonstrate the possible use of the new materials in radar-absorbing laminates and EM shields. II. SAMPLE PREPARATION: SINGLE- AND MULTIPHASE COMPOSITES In order to perform correct measurements of the effective EM properties of composite materials, it is important to prepare test samples having an isotropic and random distribution of llers in the epoxy matrix. Several samples of composites are prepared by randomly dispersing CB, CFs, and multiwall CNTs (MWCNTs) in the EPR at various weight fractions, and compositions. Each sample is denoted by the sort and the content of ller, as shown in Table I. The samples tested in this paper are obtained by using the P25 EPR system, produced by REA Industrie, as matrix. According to the datasheet, the EPR has a density of 1.09 g/cm3 .

The short CFs used are high-strength CFs produced by SP Systems. They have a Youngs modulus of 236 GPa, strength of about 3.8 GPa, dc electrical conductivity of 70 kS/m, and diameter of 7 m. A recent study has highlighted that at radio frequencies, from a few gigahertz up to 18 GHz, the electrical conductivity of the CFs embedded in epoxy matrix depends on the fabrication process and the length of the bers [4]. Typically, for CFs having lengths of 2 up to 4 mm, the average effective conductivity of 40 kS/m can be used. Commercially available MWCNTs dispersed in acetone at 1% in weight are used. According to the datasheet provided by the producer (Nanoledge), the MWCNTs have a density of 2.0 g/cm3 , length ranging from 0.1 to 10 m, an average diameter of 10 nm, and a purity of 90%: impurities include metallic catalyst, mainly cobalt, amorphous carbon, and carbon shells. The CB powders consist of nanoparticles of amorphous carbon, with diameters ranging from about 20 to 60 nm. The preparation procedure for the different test samples of Table I is as follows. Initially, the CFs are chopped in two different lengths (2 and 4 mm) and treated with acetone in order to eliminate the sizing, thus improving their dispersion in the matrix [13]. Afterward, the CFs are dispersed in the matrix and the mixture is mixed for some minutes until all the chopped CFs are separated and homogeneously dispersed. The CB nanopowders are dispersed rst in acetone to eliminate the agglomeration of the particles obtaining a dispersed CB suspension, which is then mixed with the MWCNTs solution. The resulting solution (CB and MWCNTs) is added to the CFs/epoxy mixture and mixed for some hours until uniform and homogeneous dispersion is achieved without detectable solid precipitation. During the mixing process, the temperature of the mixture is kept at 60 C in order to maintain low viscosity. After that, all the acetone is dried off, the hardener is added, and the mixture is mixed again for some minutes. The mixtures are nally poured into rectangular anges in order to perform the EM characterizations, as described in the next section. Special care should be paid in order to avoid the inclusion of air bubbles in the mixture and during the lling procedure of the anges. All the samples are cured for 48 h at 40 C. The microstructure of the realized samples is analyzed by high-resolution SEM (HR-SEM). Fig. 1 shows two different magnications of the fractured cross section of the composite loaded with 1% in weight of MWCNTs. It is observed that the nanotubes (bright spots in the gure) are well dispersed inside the matrix and well separated. It can be clearly seen that the MWCNTs are not percolating, but due to the average distance among them varying between 20 and 500 nm, they are expected to percolate at radio frequencies due to capacitive coupling. The SEM image of one CF section is reported in Fig. 2(a): notice that the average diameter is around 7 m. Moreover, it is observed from Fig. 2(b) that the average distance between the bers varies from a few tens up to several hundreds of micrometers.

558

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 50, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 1. Representative HR-SEM micrograph of MWCNT composite containing 1wt% MWCNTs after being freeze-fractured in liquid nitrogen and coated with a thin lm of carbon (< 30 nm). The bright spots are the MWCNTs.

Fig. 2. SEM images of the following. (a) One CF-section embedded in the EPR. (b) Partial view of the fracture surface of the CF-reinforced composite sample.

III. EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE EFFECTIVE PERMITTIVITY OF MICRO/NANOCOMPOSITES In the radio frequency range, up to a few tens of gigahertz, the micro/nanocomposites described in Section II can be modelled as effective homogeneous media characterized by effective complex relative permittivity e and unit relative permeability. The effective complex relative permittivity e is generally expressed in terms of its real and imaginary parts ( and , respectively). The measurements of and of the fabricated composites are carried out by applying the standard test method described in ANSI/ASTM D5568-01 [14]. The tests are performed in the frequency range 818 GHz (X-band and Ku-band) in the EMC Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome. To this purpose, two sets of waveguides having rectangular cross section are used: the one for the X-band has dimensions of 22.86 mm 10.16 mm and the one for the Ku-band has dimensions of 15.8 mm 7.9 mm. The composite materials are poured into rectangular aluminum anges 6 mm in thickness, matching the dimensions of the cross sections of the X-band and Ku-band rectangular waveguides. As an example, Fig. 3 shows pictures of the anges lled with neat EPR and with the composites CF2a, CB4, and CN of Table I. Five samples of each composite type were measured to reduce the effect of poor homogeneity and poor isotropy of the material by averaging the different results. It is generally observed that

Fig. 3. Pictures of test specimens realized by pouring in anges the neat EPR and the composites CF2a, CB4, and CN of Table I.

the measurement dispersion varies according to the different types of the considered composite. In particular, single-phase composites show a maximum standard deviation sm ax of 0.1 over the whole frequency range, whereas the new multiphase materials exhibit a higher sm ax , whose value is always lower than 0.5. At rst, the frequency spectra of and of the composites CB1 and CB4 of Table I are reported and compared with the ones of neat EPR. As shown in Fig. 4, the resin is nonconducting and the real part of e has a constant value of about 2.9 over the whole frequency range. The dispersion of the CB nanopowders in the resin at both 1% and 4% in weight does not signicantly

DE ROSA et al.: EMC IMPACT OF ADVANCED CARBON FIBER/CARBON NANOTUBE

559

Fig. 4. Measured frequency spectra of the real and imaginary parts of the relative effective permittivity of the neat EPR and the composites loaded with CB powders at 1% (CB1) and 4% (CB4) in weight.

Fig. 5. Measured frequency spectra of the real and imaginary parts of the relative effective permittivity of the composites of Table I loaded only with MWCNTs (CN) and with CB powders and MWCNTs (CN/CB4).

Fig. 6. Measured frequency spectra of the real and imaginary parts of the relative effective permittivity of the multiphase composites of Table I including the following: (a) 2 mm-long CFs and (b) 4 mm-long CFs.

affect the value of the imaginary part of e due to the nearly unit aspect ratio of the CB nanoparticles. On the contrary, the real part of the effective permittivity increases noticeably up to 3.1 and 3.8 for CB1 and CB4, respectively. Successively, the effective relative permittivities of the composites CN and CN/CB4 of Table I are measured, and the resulting frequency spectra are reported in Fig. 5. Notice that the loading of EPR with MWCNTs at 1% in weight produces a relevant increase of both and | | due to the high aspect ratio of the CNT. The biphasic composite CN/CB4 is characterized by a further increase in the real part of the effective permittivity of about 50%, whereas the imaginary part is nearly unchanged. Next, the composites loaded with CFs having two different lengths of 2 and 4 mm are analyzed. The measured real and imaginary parts of the relative effective permittivity are reported in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively. The discontinuity of the curves at 12.4 GHz, representing the upper frequency of the X-band and the lower frequency of the Ku-band, are due to the nonperfectly uniform and isotropic distribution of the inclusions inside the anges.

At rst, it is noted that the biphasic composites loaded with CB and CFs (CB4/CF2a and CB4/CF4a) are characterized by lower values of | | than the corresponding CF-reinforced composites (CF2a and CF4a). This is due to the fact that the CB nanoparticles are nearly spherically shaped and their dimensions are nearly two orders of magnitude smaller than the diameter of the bers. Therefore, the CB mainly agglomerates around the bers, reducing their resulting aspect ratio and producing an increase in the percolation threshold of the resulting biphasic composite. On the contrary, the biphasic composites including MWCNTs and CFs (CN/CF2a and CN/CF4a) are characterized by a relevant increase in both the absolute values of the real and imaginary parts of e . In fact, as discussed in [15], the nanotubes improve the electron transport between the polymeric matrix and the microscopic inclusions, thus producing an improvement in both the mechanical and electrical properties of the material. It is also interesting to note that the inclusion of the MWCNTs in the CF composite tends to reduce the effect of the aspect ratio on the value of the relative permittivity.

560

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 50, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 7. Measured frequency spectra of the real and imaginary parts of the relative effective permittivity of the multiphase composites of Table I including 2- or 4-mm-long CFs with ber volume fraction equal to 5 .13 104 .

Finally, it is observed that the inclusion in the composite of a third phase constituted by CB nanopowders mainly produces an increase in . In particular, it shows that the composites CN/CB4/CF2a and CN/CB4/CF2a are characterized by nearly overlapping values of the effective complex permittivity, even if the dispersed CFs have different aspect ratios. This means that the nanoinclusions (CB powders and MWCNTs) play a dominant role in the electron transport phenomena at the interface between the inclusions and matrix with respect to the CFs. The frequency dispersion properties of three-phase composites are mainly dependent on the amount of CFs. Fig. 7 shows the frequency spectra of the real and imaginary parts of the composites CN/CB4/CF2b and CN/CB4/CF4b made with a ber volume fraction equal to 5.13 104 (Table I). Notice that for the composite CN/CB4/CF4b, the ratio between the imaginary and the real parts of e approaches 1 over the whole frequency range. It is conrmed that both composites are characterized by the same imaginary part of the effective permittivity. In particular, it proves that the sample loaded with 2-mm-long bers has better uniformity and isotropy characteristics since the discontinuity at 12.4 GHz has nearly disappeared. IV. EM PERFORMANCES OF NEW MICRO/NANOCOMPOSITE SCREENS The micro/nanocomposite materials previously described can be used to realize advanced EM shields to be installed aboard aircraft for EMI suppression or for stealth applications. In the following, numerical simulations are performed in order to assess how the inclusion of CB nanopowders and MWCNTs inside CF-reinforced composites affects the EM performance and the thickness of the screen. At rst, the case of a composite panel having a thickness of 1 mm is considered. The shielding effectiveness (SE) is computed as the ratio between the amplitudes of the electric eld at a point with and without the screen. The panel is assumed to have innite dimensions and to be illuminated by a plane wave with normal incidence. The shielding effectiveness is computed

Fig. 8. Frequency spectra of the shielding effectiveness of 1-mm-thick panels made with the composite materials listed in Table I.

assuming that the composite is modelled as an effective medium with relative complex effective permittivity obtained from the measured data reported in Section III. The computed frequency spectra of SE in decibels are reported in Fig. 8(a) and (b), for composites reinforced with 2- and 4-mm-long microbers, respectively. It is noted that the worst shielding performance is provided by the CF composites unloaded or loaded with CB at 4% in weight. Actually, it is conrmed that the presence of the CB in the mixture does not noticeably increase the electrical conductivity of the material due to the fact that nanoparticles having spherical shape weakly affect the electron transport at the CF/matrix interface. On the contrary, the MWCNT-loaded composite (CN) has much better shielding performance due to the high aspect ratio of the inclusions. Also, it is demonstrated that the dispersion of MWCNT in CF-reinforced composite leads to an increase in the SE of the panel, due to the reduction in the percolation threshold. Finally, it is interesting to note that, in the MWCNT/CF mixture, the presence of a third phase made of CB improves the shielding performance of the composite due to the spherical nanoparticles. The comparison of the results presented in Fig. 8(a) and (b) also demonstrates that both composites CN/CF2a/CB4 and CN/CF4a/CB4 of Table I have the same shielding performance: in fact, the presence of the nanoparticles in the mixture

DE ROSA et al.: EMC IMPACT OF ADVANCED CARBON FIBER/CARBON NANOTUBE

561

Fig. 9.

Schematic conguration of the dielectric Salisbury screen.

TABLE II OPTIMUM DESIGNS OF DIELECTRIC SALISBURY SCREENS REALIZED WITH SINGLE- AND MULTIPHASE COMPOSITES LOADED WITH CFS HAVING LENGTH OF 2 mm

TABLE III OPTIMUM DESIGNS OF DIELECTRIC SALISBURY SCREENS REALIZED WITH SINGLE- AND MULTIPHASE COMPOSITES LOADED WITH CFS HAVING LENGTH OF 4 mm

(both CB and MWCNTs) improves the homogeneity of the composite and increases noticeably the percolation threshold irrespective of the aspect ratio of the microbers. Next, the dielectric Salisbury screen sketched in Fig. 9 is considered. The spacer is assumed to be made of commercial Rohacell IG51, which is a low-loss-tangent dielectric material having relative permittivity of 1.1 in the frequency range from 8 to 18 GHz. The lossy sheet is realized by the different composite materials listed in Table I. The Salisbury screen is designed by applying the procedure described in [16], considering the constraint that the minimum reection coefcient of the panel should be at a frequency of about 15 GHz. The scope of the analysis is to assess how the use as a lossy sheet of the different micro/nanocomposites described in the previous section can reduce the overall thickness of the radar-absorbing screen when the working frequency is dened. The optimum designs of the screens realized with composites loaded with the 2- and 4-mm-long bers are reported in Tables II and III, respectively. The corresponding computed frequency spectra of the reection coefcient are shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b).

Fig. 10. Frequency spectra of the reection coefcients of Salisbury dielectric screens having the congurations described in Table II (a), Table III (b), and Table IV (c).

At rst, it is noted that all screens made with the composites including both CFs and CNs have very similar EM performances in terms of minimum reection coefcient and bandwidth at 10 dB. According to the data reported in Tables II and III such screens also have total thicknesses less than 2 mm, whereas the thicknesses of Salisbury screens made with the CF composite CF2a and CF4a are 8.2 and 3 mm, respectively. The shields made with the composites reinforced with CB and CFs (CB4/CF2a and CB4/CF4a) have the worst performance because of the high reectivity produced by the high ratio between the real and imaginary parts of the effective relative permittivity.

562

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 50, NO. 3, AUGUST 2008

TABLE IV OPTIMUM DESIGNS OF DIELECTRIC SALISBURY SCREENS REALIZED WITH SINGLE- AND BIPHASIC COMPOSITES LOADED WITH MWCNTS

REFERENCES
[1] C. P. Neo and Vijay K. Varadan, Optimization of carbon ber composite for microwave absorber, IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 102106, Feb. 2004. [2] R. A. Tellakula, V. K. Varadan, T. C. Shamy, and G. N. Mathur, Carbon ber and nanotube based composites with polypyrrole fabric as electromagnetic absorbers, Smart Mater. Struct., vol. 13, pp. 10401044, 2004. [3] M. Koledintseva, K. Rozanov, and B. Archambeault, Engineering of composite media for shields at microwave frequencies, presented at the 2005 IEEE Int. Symp. EMC, Chicago, IL, Aug. [4] A. Balzano, I. M. De Rosa, F. Sarasini, and M. S. Sarto, Effective properties of carbon ber composites: EM modeling versus experimental testing, presented at the 2007 IEEE Int. Symp. EMC, Honolulu, HW, Jul. [5] M. Y. Koledintseva, R. E. DuBroff, and R. W. Schwartz, A Maxwell Garnett model for dielectric mixtures containing conducting particles at optical frequencies, Prog. Electromagn. Res., vol. 63, pp. 223242, 2006. [6] M. Y. Koledintseva, S. K. R. Chandra, R. E. DuBroff, and R. W. Schwartz, Modeling of dielectric mixtures containing conducting inclusions with statistically distributed aspect ratio, Prog. Electromagn. Res., vol. 66, pp. 213228, 2006. [7] M. Y. Koledintseva, R. E. DuBroff, R. W. Schwartz, and J. L. Drewniak, Double statistical distribution of conductivity and aspect ratio of inclusions in dielectric mixtures at microwave frequencies, Prog. Electromagn. Res., vol. 77, pp. 193214, 2007. [8] A. Balzano, C. Caneva, I. M. De Rosa, R. Mancinelli, M. Pagliuca, F. Sarasini, and M. S. Sarto, Electromagnetic design and realization of innovative bre-reinforced broad-band absorbing materials, IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., to be published. [9] S.-E. Lee, J.-H. Kang, and C.-G. Kim, Fabrication and design of multilayered radar absorbing structures of MWNT-lled glass/epoxy plain-weave composites, Compos. Struct., vol. 76, pp. 397405, 2006. [10] Z. Fan, G. Luo, Z. Zhang, L. Zhou, and F. Wei, Electromagnetic and microwave absorbing properties of multiwalled carbon nanotubes/polymer composites, Mater. Sci. Eng. B, vol. 132, pp. 8589, 2006. [11] Y. S. Song and J. R. Youn, Inuence of dispersion states of carbon nanotubes on physical properties of epoxy nanocomposites, Carbon, vol. 43, pp. 13781385, 2005. [12] T. Hikage, Y. Sakaguchi, T. Nojima, and Y. Koyamashita, Development of lightweight solid phantom composed of silicone rubber and carbon nanotubes, presented at the 2007 IEEE Int. Symp. EMC, Honolulu, HW, Jul. [13] M. H. Choi, B. H. Jeon, and I. J. Chung, The effect of coupling agent on electrical and mechanical properties of carbon ber/phenolic resin composites, Polymer, vol. 41, pp. 32433252, 2000. [14] Standard test method for measuring relative complex permittivity and relative magnetic permeability of solid materials at microwave frequencies, ANSI/ASTM Standard D5568-01, 2001. [15] P. Potshke, S. M. Dudkin, and I. Alig, Dielectric spectroscopy on melt processed polycarbonate-multiwalled carbon nanotube composites, Polymer, vol. 44, pp. 50235030, 2003. [16] L. De Cinti, S. Greco, and M. S. Sarto, Design optimization of electromagnetic absorbing screens including metamaterials for electromagnetic interference suppression, presented at the 2007 EMC Eur. Workshop, Paris, Jun. 1415.

In particular, the shield with the composite CB4/CF2a has a total thickness of 7.2 mm, whereas the one realized with the CB4/CF4a composite is only 2.61 mm thick. This is due to the dominant effect of the higher aspect ratio of the 4-mm-long bers that produces a consistent reduction in the percolation threshold of the composite, and consequently, an increase in its effective electrical conductivity in the considered frequency range for the same value of ber volume fraction. Finally, Table IV shows the conguration of the optimum design of two Salisbury screens, having the lossy sheets made with MWCNT-loaded composite and with CB/MWCNT-loaded composite, respectively. It should be observed that both screens are characterized by a total thickness less than 2 mm (namely, 1.67 and 1.48 mm, respectively). However, the one including the CN/CB4 composite is characterized by a lower reection coefcient, as shown in Fig. 10(c). Therefore, it follows that the addition of the CB nanopowders in the MWCNT-loaded composite allows the EM performances of the screen to be improved, and at the same time, permits maintaining the concentration of the MWCNTs at the maximum value of 1% in weight.

V. CONCLUSION In this paper, single-phase and multiphase micro/nanocomposites are fabricated and experimentally characterized in the X-band and Ku-band. The results highlight how the microand nanoinclusions affect the real and imaginary parts of the effective complex permittivity of the composites. In fact, the dispersion characteristics of CF composites can be properly controlled by adding CB and MWCNTs instead of increasing the length of the bers. The measured effective complex permittivity is used to design the lossy sheet of new radar absorbing screens. The results show that the minimum reection coefcient is obtained for Salisbury screens having the lossy sheet made with the three-phase composites. This is due to the fact that the loss tangent of the MWCNTs/CB/CFs mixtures approaches 1 over the whole frequency range. Moreover, such congurations permit lightening the structure through a signicant decrease in the total thickness of the panel. The reduction of the percolation threshold and the related increase of the SE due to the use of MWCNTs in CF-reinforced composite has also been addressed. In the future, new models for the prediction of the complex permittivity of multiphase mixtures including MWCNTs will be developed and experimentally validated.

Igor Maria De Rosa was born in Rome, Italy. He received the Laurea degree in materials engineering and the Ph.D. degree in materials engineering and raw materials from the Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, in 2003 and 2008, respectively. He is currently with the Department of Chemical Engineering-Materials-Environment, Sapienza University of Rome. His current research interests include advanced composite materials for electromagnetic applications (electromagnetic compatibility shielding, radar absorbing materials), manufacture and mechanical characterization of natural-ber-reinforced composites, mechanical testing, and nondestructive testing of composites using acoustic emission technique.

DE ROSA et al.: EMC IMPACT OF ADVANCED CARBON FIBER/CARBON NANOTUBE

563

Fabrizio Sarasini was born in Rome, Italy, in 1977. He received the Laurea degree (cum laude) in materials engineering and the Ph.D. degree in materials engineering and raw materials from the Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, in 2002 and 2007, respectively. He is currently with the Department of Chemical Engineering-Materials-Environment, Sapienza University of Rome. His current research interests include materials for electromagnetic shielding, nondestructive testing/damage characterization in composite structures using acoustic emission techniques, and manufacture and mechanical testing of natural ber-reinforced composites.

Alessio Tamburrano (M02) received the Laurea (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Since 2006, he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Rome Sapienza. His current research interests include electromagnetic compatibility and nanotechnology, electromagnetic characterization of transparent thin lms, nanostructured and composite materials for shielding and radar absorbing structures, and carbon nanotubes as nanotransmission lines for interconnect applications and diagnostics of the wiring system aboard aircraft. Dr. Tamburrano was the recipient of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society Best Paper Award at the 2005 IEEE International Symposium on EMC, Chicago, IL. He is also a member of the IEEE EMC Society.

Maria Sabrina Sarto (M93SM00) received the Laurea and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, in 1992 and 1997, respectively. From 1998 to 2004, she was an Associate Professor of electrotechnics in the Faculty of Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, where she has been a Full Professor since 2005. Since 1998, she has also been the Scientic Responsible of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Director of the Research Center on Nanotechnology Applied to Engineering since 2006, and the Director of the Joint Laboratory on Micro/Nanotechnologies for Industrial Applications of Sapienza Innovation Consortium since 2007. Her current research interests include electromagnetic compatibility and nanotechnology, modeling of complex circuits and networks, electromagnetic simulation of complex systems by means of numerical techniques, modeling, design, and experimental characterization of nanostructured materials for electromagnetic applications, such as shielding materials, radar-absorbing materials, transparent metals, advanced composites, and nanostructured thin lms, the electromagnetic modeling of carbon nanotubes and nanocomposites including carbon nanotubes and nextgeneration nanointerconnects. She is the author or coauthor of more than 100 papers published in international journals and the proceedings of international symposia. She is the holder of two patents on multifunctional nanostructured electromagnetic shields. Prof. Sarto was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society from 2001 to 2002. She has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY since 1998, the Co-Chair of the IEEE EMC Society TC11 on Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, a member of the Advisory Board of the IEEE Council on Nanotechnology, and the Chair of the working group IEEE STD 299.1 of the IEEE EMC Society.