The coating with ZrO2-coated hollow glass microspheres: Low solar absorption and high microwave transmittance

• Published in: Materials & design 2023-08, Vol.232, p.112136, Article 112136
• Main Authors: Yang, Yu, Jiang, Miao, Ma, Zhuang, Rogachev, Alexandr A., Tian, Weizhi, Gao, Xin, Xu, Baowen, Gao, Lihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dielectric properties; Satellite antenna; Solar absorption; Thermal control coatings
• ISSN: 0264-1275
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2023.112136

[Display omitted] •The multifunctional coating for thermal control and wave transmission was studied and prepared for the first time.•The new coating was successfully prepared on the carbon fiber epoxy resin by a simple painting method.•The ZrO2-coated hollow glass microspheres coating achieved excellent optical, mechanical and electromagnetic properties. Carbon fiber epoxy resin (CFRP) is gradually used as the space satellite antenna material, thermal control coatings (TCCs) are prepared on the surface to ensure the stable operation. However, the traditional TCCs have no wave transmission capability. The hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) were used to prepare the coating in our work, and ZrO2 was coated on its surface (Zr-HGM) to improve the solar reflectivity. The Zr-HGM powders were obtained by a homogeneous precipitation method with an appropriate reaction time of 4 h. By investigating the optical and dielectric properties, we found that the solar absorption of the coating with Zr-HGM was reduced by half compared to the coating with the original HGM. The microwave transmittances were all above 96.5% from 2 to 18 GHz. Our findings have proposed a preparation method for a new CFRP-based TCC, which will ensure the stable operation of the satellite antenna.