Electromagnetic-Wave Absorption Properties of 3D-Printed Thermoplastic Polyurethane/Carbonyl Iron Powder Composites

To develop a composite filament with an electromagnetic-wave-absorbing function suitable for 3D printing, we combined thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) as the matrix material and carbonyl iron powder (CIP) as the absorbing agent to prepare TPU/CIP composites by melt blending. The composites passed through a single-screw extruder to obtain a filament with 2.85 mm in diameter. Different absorber structures were printed using fused deposition modeling, and their absorption properties were tested using the bow method. The results showed that by increasing CIP content, the electromagnetic-wave absorption performance gradually improved, while the mechanical properties substantially decreased. When the mass fraction of the CIP was 60%, the TPU/CIP composite showed good absorption properties and could be prepared into a filament that met the requirements for fused deposition modeling. Simulation results of plate-wave-absorption performance showed that, when the plate thickness was 3 mm, the minimum reflection loss was −21.98 dB, and the effective absorption bandwidth (for reflection loss below −10 dB) was 3.1 GHz (4.55–7.65 GHz). After the TPU/CIP composite was printed into honeycomb, pyramid, and other absorber structures, the absorption performance was further improved. For a structure printed with a gradient-wall honeycomb structure at 3 mm thickness, the effective absorption bandwidth was 4.64 GHz (8.48–13.12 GHz), and the minimum reflection loss was −36.69 dB. The effective absorption bandwidth of the pyramid structure reached 15.88 GHz (2.12–18 GHz), and the minimum reflection loss was −49.75 dB.