Influence of multiwalled carbon nanotube addition on the magnetic and reflection-loss characteristics of Mn–Sn–Ti substituted strontium ferrite nanoparticles

•Structural properties of nanocomposites were investigated.•The microwave absorbing characteristics were studied.•The synthesized materials are proper candidates for electromagnetic wave absorber. In this work, Mn–Sn–Ti substituted strontium ferrite (Sr-ferrite:SrM) nanoparticles were attached on the outer surface of varied multi-walled carbon nanotubes volume fraction with the amount of 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30, by employing of the sol–gel method. The phase identification and morphologies of the nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning microscopy respectively. The obtained results showed that the single phase SrFe9.5 (Mn1.25Sn0.625Ti0.625) O19 nanoparticles were decorated on MWCNTs can be obtained at 900°C. Fourier transform infrared revealed that both the stretching and the bending modes are formed in the citrate complex in the ferrite and hydroxyl and carboxyl groups on the external surface of MWCNTs. The Magnetic properties were measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer. It was found that saturation magnetization, remanent magnetization and coercivity decrease by an increase in the MWCNTs content from 10 to 30vol%. The reflection loss measurement of the prepared absorber which contain the ratio of 70–30mass% for the nanocomposite to the polyvinyl chloride, done by the vector network analyzer, proved that the prepared nanocomposites have the maximum reflection loss of −28dB at the frequency of 8.8GHz for Mn–Ti–Sn substituted strontium ferrite −30vol% MWCNT nanocomposite with a bandwidth of 4GHz (RL>−10dB).