Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1154–1159

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

A new practical method to determine the microwave energy absorption ability

of materials
S.J. Ma a,*, X.W. Zhou b, X.J. Su a, W. Mo a, J.L. Yang a, P. Liu a
a
School of Resources and Metallurgy, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, PR China
b
Guangxi Gold Administration Bureau, Nanning 530023, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: To quantitatively measure and compare the ability of different materials in absorbing microwave energy,
Received 17 December 2008 a new practical method, only using a home microwave oven with microwave radiation out of the bottom
Accepted 15 May 2009 of the cavity as the major apparatus, was developed. During the measuring process, each target material
Available online 10 June 2009
and water, separately contained with two microwave transparent containers, respectively, were simulta-
neously placed in the oven cavity for microwave irradiation. The water container was above the tested
Keywords: materials container, and the water acted as the medium to absorb the microwave energy surplus to that
Industrial minerals
absorbed by tested materials. By determining the water temperature and then calculating its absorbed
Activated carbon
Comminution
microwave energy, the microwave energy absorbed by the target materials could be obtained. According
Roasting to this method, seven bulk solid materials of reagent grade were tested and the results agree well with
Leaching previous research reports. In addition, the principle and control of the measuring conditions of the novel
method were discussed in this paper.
Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction Theoretically, the microwave energy absorbed by materials can

Microwave heating is unique and has a lot of advantages over
conventional heating such as rapid heating, material selective
heating, volumetric heating. Out of these advantages, material
selective heating is one of the most important fundamental prop-
erties for microwave energy application in minerals engineering.
Material selective heating means there is difference in absorbing
microwave energy for different minerals, so different temperature
rising rates in microwave field exist, which to a great extent is the
basis of microwave-assisted crushing and grinding. Because of the
material selective heating, microwave can induce stress and even
the formation of cracks between different ore minerals particles,
and so improve liberation and increase the comminution efficiency
(Walkiewicz et al., 1988, 1991; Kingman et al., 2000, 2004; Olu-
bambi et al., 2007; Scott et al., 2008). Therefore, it is very important
to understand the difference of different materials in absorbing
microwaves. As early as 1966, Connell and Moe (1966) studied
heating of minerals by microwave and obtained a US patent for
apparatus for ore treatment. Ford and Pei (1967) applied micro-
waves to several oxides and sulphides, and concluded that dark
colored compounds heated faster than light colored compounds.
Chen et al. (1984) applied microwave irradiation to 40 minerals,
and classified the test materials into two groups based on the gen-
eration of heat and the change of the materials properties.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 771 3232200; fax: +86 771 3233566.
E-mail address: shjma@gxu.edu.cn (S.J. Ma).
be inferred through their dielectric and magnetic properties, which
is proportional to the frequency of the applied electric field, to the
loss factor and to the square of the local electric field intensity
(Nanthakumar et al., 2007). However, the permittivities of most
materials are related with several variables such as the moisture
content of materials, the frequency of the applied electric field,
the temperature and the density and the structure of materials.
Therefore, it is actually difficult to obtain the microwave energy
absorbed by materials based on theoretical calculation. In fact,
people often directly measure the material temperature to obtain
the absorbed microwave energy. Some methods have been re-
ported. For example, the temperature of a microwave irradiated
sample can be measured by inserting a measuring device into
the hot material immediately after turning off microwave power.
Many measuring devices, such as luxtron fluoroptic, accufibre,
optical pyrometer, thermocouple, the ultrasonic temperature
probe, were used for temperature measurement (Haque, 1999).
However, many limitations existed in above-mentioned methods
and devices. For instance, measuring devices usually failed in per-
formance when contacted with some heated materials which were
sensitive to microwave absorption and quickly reached very high
temperature. The temperature measurement was subjected to a
limited number of points, so the measured temperatures or their
mean values could not reflect the true temperature characteristic
of the bulk materials, especially for mixed materials. Therefore, it
is of significance to seek a new method to look into the character-
istic of materials in microwave absorption so as to select suitable

0892-6875/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2009.05.003
 S.J. Ma et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1154–1159
materials in microwave field and to predict the heating behaviours
of ore minerals when heated by microwave irradiation.
In this paper, a new method about measuring absorbed micro-
wave energy was invented (Publication No. CN101078700 for Chi-
nese patent censor), in which water, due to its sensitivity to
microwave energy, was used as the medium material to absorb
indirectly reflected microwave radiation of the tested materials.
The method is simple, practical and suitable not only for pure
materials but for mixed material as well.
2. Principle and methods
2.1. Apparatus
The system, illustrated as Fig. 1, mainly consisted of a home
microwave oven (1300 kW input electricity power, 800 W micro-
wave output) (G80W23ESL-V9, Galanz Group, China), a rectangular
plastic box for containing water, a hardened glass pan for contain-
ing target materials for test. The inner dimensions of the oven cav-
ity were 214 mm in height, 332 mm in length and 346 mm in
width. A flat ceramic plate was installed on the bottom of the metal
cabinet when manufactured. According to the oven product speci-
fication, the outlet of the oven waveguide was under the ceramic
plate, and so microwaves had to penetrate the ceramic plate before
being directed to the cavity. The plastic box had dimensions of
100 mm in height, 274 mm in length and 210 mm in width. Its
thickness was about 3 mm with 266 g mass. The major concern
about the box was to hold the heat of the water and to reduce heat
loss. The hardened glass pan had a bottom diameter of about
210 mm, top diameter of 254 mm, and height of 50 mm. The glass
thickness of the pan was about 5 mm with 836 g mass, which pro-
vided a good heat resisting property. Because the length of the
plastic box was bigger than the top diameter of the glass pan,
the plastic box could directly lay above the glass pan and avoid di-
rect contact with the target materials provided the stacking height
of the target materials was smaller than the wedge height of the
pan, which would overcome the water being heated by the target
materials during the microwave irradiation process.
In addition, a digital display temperature controller with elec-
tric thermocouple as the probe and a laser temperature instrument
were used to monitor the temperatures of water and solid materi-
als, respectively. They could display the temperature variation of
0.1 °C. Temperature measurement was carried out when the oven
was switched off.
Fig. 1. The diagram of the measuring apparatus.
1155
2.2. Principle
It is well known that the interaction between microwave and
matter is the molecular polarization of non-polar molecules and
then rotation of dipole, which causes friction among molecules
and further heat effect. When microwaves enter the cavity, they
are reflected by the metal wall and so distributed in the whole
space of the cavity. Therefore, when two or more different matters
are placed in the cavity, they would be irradiated by microwaves at
the same time, except metal reflecting microwaves. That is to say,
one matter would not prevent another matter from receiving
microwave irradiation. However, the amount of microwaves
absorbed by a matter in a given time could be affected if another
matter exists. This effect can be roughly explained using electro-
magnetic radiation quanta concept. On basis of this concept, the
amount of absorbed microwaves by a matter mainly depends on
the irradiation times and energy density of each irradiation besides
on the properties of the material. For a microwave oven with a
fixed microwave frequency, the irradiation times in a fixed time
could be thought to be fixed, thus the energy density of each irra-
diation and the properties of the material become the major factors
to affect the amount of absorbed microwaves. But the irradiated
energy density is inversely related with the properties of the mate-
rial. Assumed that some matter A sensitive to microwaves be irra-
diated twice in an oven cavity by microwaves. The surplus
microwave energy, compared to the first supply energy, will re-
duce after matter A has been irradiated for the first time. When
the surplus energy is re-reflected by the cavity wall for the second
irradiation, the energy density for the second irradiation will de-
cline. The stronger the ability of absorbing microwaves of the mat-
ter, the less the surplus microwave energy is and so the lower the
surplus energy density is for the second irradiation, which is iden-
tical to the attenuation of microwaves moving in a very long semi-
conductor. If assumed that there are two matters, called A and B,
respectively, and that both them have different abilities to absorb
microwaves, the effect of the existence of matter B on the amount
of matter A absorbing microwave energy could be discussed as fol-
lows. Assumed there are two cases. One case is that only matter A
is irradiated for two times, and the second one is that both matter
A and matter B are simultaneously irradiated for two times too.
Obviously the surplus energy densities for the second irradiation
will be different for the two cases because of the difference of mat-
ters A and B in absorbing microwaves. Therefore mutual effect will
exist when two or more matters are placed together to be irradi-
ated in the cavity, which provides a possible theoretical basis
and a way to determine the ability of one matter absorbing micro-
waves from that of another matter.
As demonstrated in Fig. 1, two matters are placed in the cavity
for absorbing microwave. One matter is so-called medium mate-
rial, which is expected to be sensitive to microwave and easy to
mix so that its inner temperature is even to satisfy convenient tem-
perature measurement. Water is typically polar matter and satis-
fies these demands well, so in this new developed method water
was employed as the medium material. In this case, if water phase
change does not occur, the variation of its inner temperature
should be able to reflect the amount of its absorbed microwaves.
Naturally the other matter is the target materials for test.
As regard the discussed microwave oven, when it works, micro-
waves out of the magnetron tube are transported by the waveguide
to its outlet, then penetrate the bottom ceramic plate, and eventu-
ally enter the cavity to be reflected by metal wall and absorbed by
the water and the target materials. During the process, ineffective
loss of microwave energy, which refers to the part of the micro-
wave energy not used for heating the water and the target materi-
als, is unavoidable because microwaves could be absorbed by the
waveguide, the ceramic plate, and the containers. In addition, tak-
1156 S.J. Ma et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1154–1159
ing away heat through radiator electric fan of the oven could also
lead to the loss of microwave energy. Therefore, the output micro-
wave energy could not be fully transferred into thermal energy to
increase the temperature of the materials. That means a systematic
ineffective loss of microwave output exists, and so the available
microwave energy to increase the temperature of the materials
would always be less than the microwave output. Nevertheless,
this systematic ineffective loss of microwave energy can be re-
duced by selecting so-called microwave transparent materials for
the containers and by controlling the system temperature, mainly
referred to the temperature of the cavity space. Theoretically, for a
manufactured microwave oven, there is a maximal available
microwave energy which is less than the microwave output.
For the sake of convenient discussion, designate WOM as the to-
tal output microwave energy, J; WAM as the available microwave
energy in the cavity for heating the tested materials and the med-
ium, J; QL as the ineffective loss of microwave energy, J; and k as
the utilization efficiency of the output microwave energy, then
the following equations can be derived:
W OM ¼ W AM þ Q L
W AM ¼ kW OM
Q L ¼ ð1  kÞW OM
When the water medium and some target material are simulta-
neously placed in the cavity and receive microwave irradiation, the
available microwave energy is used to heat the water medium and
the tested material. If QW is designated as the microwave energy
absorbed by the water medium, QTM by the tested material, the fol-
lowing equation can be written:
W AM ¼ Q W þ Q TM
so
Q TM ¼ W AM  Q W
By substituting WAM with k and WOM based on Eqs. (2) and (5)
can be rewritten as follows:
Q TM ¼ kW OM  Q W
Eq. (6) indicates that the microwave energy QTM absorbed by
the tested material could be obtained if WOM, QW and k are solved.
This is the theoretical basis of the new method discussed in this
article.
Generally the output microwave energy can be calculated based
on the selected power and the work time of the microwave oven as
follows:
W OM ¼ Pt
where WOM is output microwave energy, J; P is the selected output
microwave power of the microwave oven, W; t is the heating time, s.
The energy absorbed by the water medium, in the case of
neglecting its undeterminable heat loss for water vaporization,
heat conduction to its container and heat irradiation to its sur-
rounding environment, which is possible and acceptable by select-
ing optimum operation conditions, can be easily deduced as
follows:
Q W ¼ mcðT 2  T 1 Þ
where QW is the energy absorbed by the water medium, J; m is its
mass, kg; c is the specific heat of water, J kg1 °C1, T2 and T1 are
the temperatures after and before heating, °C.
So far, WOM and QW have been solved; the problem left is to seek
the microwave energy utilization efficiency k.
According to prior analysis on microwave transportation and
working processes, the ineffective loss of the output microwave
energy can be attributed into two types of causes, one being due
to direct microwave absorption by materials such as, the ceramic
plate, cavity wall and containers , and the other one being caused
by heat absorption by these materials from the tested materials
and the medium and by heat escape through the irradiator electric
fan. Although temperature affects the sensitivity of materials to
microwave, it is acceptable to consider the microwave absorption
ability of materials to be constant if the temperature change can
be controlled within a small range. Therefore it is allowed to con-
sider a stable direct loss of microwave absorption by the oven itself
and the containers if the system is controlled with only small tem-
perature changes. On the other hand, the microwaves loss caused
by heat absorption and heat escape also mainly depends on the
system temperature. Normally the closer the system temperature
is to its surrounding environment temperature, the less this type
of heat loss becomes. So, under given operation conditions, the to-
tal microwave ineffective loss should be relatively stable and can
be roughly considered to be a constant when the system tempera-
ture is controlled close to its surrounding environment tempera-
ture with small change. Otherwise, ineffective loss would change,
ð1Þ
which was verified by later experiment results. According to this
ð2Þ analysis, it is reasonable to consider the same value of k for two
ð3Þ experimental cases, one being that water medium and tested
materials are simultaneously irradiated and the other being that
only the water medium with the same mass being irradiated.
The latter case means QTM is zero, so k can be calculated as follows:
k ¼ qW =W OM ð9Þ
where qW is microwave energy absorbed by the water without tar-
get materials in the cavity, J. If let t2 and t1 stand for the tempera-
tures after and before heated in this case, then qW can be
ð4Þ obtained as follows:
qW ¼ mcðt 2  t1 Þ ð10Þ
ð5Þ Thus, the microwave energy absorbed by a tested material can
be obtained on basis of Eq. (6) after WOM has been solved based on
Eq. (7), QW on Eq. (8), and k on Eqs. (9) and (10). Further, the ability
of absorbing microwave for different materials can be compared.
ð6Þ
2.3. Determining procedure
The determining procedure included setting the initial operat-
ing conditions, preparing materials, measuring the medium tem-
peratures and calculating the microwave energy absorbed by the
tested materials.
Initial operation conditions mainly included setting the output
power P and the heating time t. The rated power was conveniently
ð7Þ set as the output power. Choice of the heating time t had to con-
sider the water vaporization and the thermal resistance of the glass
pan. In the case of the same microwave output, in general the
greater the mass of the water medium, the less the temperature
of the water medium increased and so less the water vaporized
with higher utilization efficiency of the microwave energy for heat
transfer. Therefore a big mass of water medium allowed a rela-
tively long heat time. On the other hand, for some materials sensi-
tive to microwaves, a long heat time could destroy the glass pan, so
too long heating was not feasible. In addition, a very short heating
ð8Þ time might hardly increase the water temperature, which is also
not desired, because it would result in large calculation error and
temperature observation error. Therefore, the heating time had
better be selected based on experimental results.
Preparation of materials included water medium and the target
materials for test. Tap water was chosen as the medium material.
However, the mass of water medium greatly affected the results.
The greater the mass of the water medium, the smaller the temper-
ature variation was. In order to control water vaporization and
 S.J. Ma et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1154–1159
experimental error, the rational mass was also determined by
experiments as illustrated later. Regarding the tested materials,
they were required to be able to occupy the whole bottom area
of the glass pan with a thickness smaller than the height of the
glass pan wedge.
Temperature measurement mainly aimed at the water medium.
Because of its sensitivity and stableness in displaying temperature,
electric thermo-couple was used as the probe in measuring the
temperature of the water medium. The electric thermo-couple
probe was inserted in the water medium only after the oven power
turned off and the water medium was slightly agitated with a glass
rod to make the inner temperature more even.
After the temperature measurement finished, the microwave
energy absorbed by the tested materials was calculated in compli-
ance with the following steps. Firstly, calculated the total micro-
wave output energy WOM based on Eq. (7). Then, calculated the
microwave energy QW and qW using Eqs. (8) and (10), respectively,
followed by calculating the microwave energy utilization efficiency
k on basis of Eq. (9). Finally, calculated the microwave energy QTM
absorbed by the tested materials on basis of Eq. (6).
To compare the ability of microwave energy absorbing for dif-
ferent materials, the operation conditions were strictly kept con-
sistent for all materials. To clearly demonstrate the results, the
plotting of absorbing energy versus heating time was given as
illustrated later.
3. Validation and application
3.1. Effect of water medium mass on the microwave efficiency
It was mentioned previously that the water medium mass could
have an important effect on the microwave utilization efficiency.
To testify this point, experiments were carried out, in which only
water with its plastic container was put in the cavity for micro-
wave irradiation. The output microwave power was set at 800 W,
and the heating time was 120 s. The results are shown in Table 1.
It can be seen from Table 1 that the medium mass greatly af-
fected the energy utilization efficiency. After microwave irradia-
tion for 120 s, the maximal microwave utilization efficiency was
77% at 2.0 kg medium mass. When the medium mass was less than
2.0 kg, the microwave utilization efficiency increased with the
medium mass. However, the microwave utilization efficiency de-
clined with water medium mass when the medium mass was more
than 2.0 kg. It means that when medium mass is less than 2.0 kg,
the microwave is surplus. So increase of the medium mass could
promote more energy being absorbed. In a word, 2.0 kg medium
mass matched well with 800 W output microwave, which ensured
the highest microwave utilization efficiency.
3.2. Effect of irradiation time on the microwave efficiency
For a given water mass, the irradiation time affects the temper-
ature rising of the medium, and further possibly affects the micro-
Table 1
Effect of water medium mass on microwave energy utilization efficiency for heat transfer.
Medium mass (kg) Temperature (°C)
Initial temperature Final temperature
0.5 26.4 53.7
1.0 26.4 42.6
1.5 26.4 37.7
2.0 26.4 35.2
2.5 26.4 33.3
3.0 26.4 31.9
3.5 26.4 30.9
1157
wave utilization efficiency due to more water vaporization and
stronger heat conduction and irradiation in case of high tempera-
ture. To look into the relationship of irradiation time with micro-
wave utilization efficiency, experiments were conducted. During
these experiments, 2.0 kg water medium, together with its plastic
container and the glass pan was placed in the cavity for microwave
irradiation for different time. The irradiation time was set at 40 s,
80 s, 120 s, 160 s, 200 s, and 240 s, respectively. The experimental
results are listed in Table 2.
Table 2 indicates that, although the heating time changed from
40 s to 240 s, the microwave energy utilization efficiency did not
show obvious relationship with the heating time. So it could be
concluded that change of heating time within this scope would
not apparently alter the microwave energy utilization efficiency
for heating 2 kg water. Regarding the fluctuation of the utilization
efficiency, it could be caused by operation error when measuring
the temperature. The stability of the microwave energy utilization
efficiency should be attributed to the low final temperature, which
verified again that 2.0 kg water medium was suitable. Therefore, it
is acceptable to consider k stable as described in discussing the
principle of the method, provided the experimental operation
could be well selected and effectively controlled.
3.3. Comparison of materials in absorbing microwave energy
The ability of different materials in absorbing microwave en-
ergy was tested. SiO2, CaCO3, CaO, Al2O3, MnO2, Fe3O4, activated
carbon were selected as the target materials for test. All these solid
materials were reagent grade products. Among these products,
SiO2 was granular with relatively coarse size, and the other mate-
rials were very fine powders. During the experiments, the micro-
wave output power of the oven was set at 800 W, and 2.0 kg
water was employed as the medium. The stacking thicknesses of
materials in the glass pan container ranged from about 12 mm to
40 mm, depending on their densities and particle sizes. Each tested
material (0.50 kg) was individually microwaved for 40 s, 80 s,
120 s, 160 s, 200 s, and 240 s, respectively. When each heating
was complete, the final temperature of the water medium was
determined for calculation of its absorbed microwave energy,
while the temperature of the tested material was determined by
means of the laser temperature meter, which was used only as a
rough reference because of the uneven distribution of the inner
temperature. The results are shown in Fig. 2.
Based on the absorbed energy and its variation trend with the
heating time shown in Fig. 2, the questioned materials could be
classified into four types. The first type, such as activated carbon
and Fe3O4, was especially sensitive to microwave. The absorbed
energy increased rapidly with the heating time, so their tempera-
ture went up quickly. The laser temperature meter displayed the
surface temperature of Fe3O4 was above 100 °C after microwave
irradiation for 200 s. When the irradiation time was set at 240 s,
the glass pan cracked due to too high temperature of Fe3O4. How-
ever, the medium, heated together with Fe3O4, had a very small
Absorbed energy (J) Energy utilization efficiency, k (%)
Increased temperature
27.3 57,330 59.7
16.2 68,040 70.9
11.3 71,190 74.2
8.8 73,920 77.0
6.9 72,450 75.5
5.5 69,300 72.2
4.5 66,150 68.9
1158 S.J. Ma et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1154–1159

Table 2
Effect of irradiation time on microwave energy utilization efficiency for heat transfer.

Irradiation time (s) Temperature (°C) Absorbed energy (J) Energy utilization efficiency, k (%)
Initial temperature Final temperature Increased temperature
40 24.4 27.2 2.8 23,520 73.5
80 24.4 30.2 5.8 48,720 76.1
120 24.4 32.8 8.4 70,560 73.5
160 24.4 35.2 10.8 90,720 70.9
200 24.4 37.4 13.0 109,200 68.2
240 24.4 40.6 16.2 136,080 70.9

70000 (1967). Therefore, the new developed way, discussed in the paper,
65000 SiO2 to determine the ability of absorbing microwave for different
CaO materials was credible.
60000 CaCO 3
55000 Al2 O 3
In addition, on basis of the description of the absorbed micro-
Absorbed energy /J

50000 MnO2 wave energy and the surface temperature of MnO2, Fe3O4, acti-
45000 Fe3O4 vated carbon, it implied that the rising rate of materials surface
40000 C temperature is not always correlated positively with the amount
35000 of absorbed microwave energy, which also gives the similar infor-
30000 mation expressed by the formula of temperature rising rate that it
25000 depends not only on the absorbed microwave but the specific heat
20000 and the density of the material (Nanthakumar et al., 2007). There-
15000 fore, it can be concluded that it is not appropriate to use the rate of
10000 surface heating to infer the microwave absorption behaviour by a
5000 given material, but that the method presented provides an alterna-
0 tive, according to which the absorption can be quantified directly.
0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280
Heating time /s

Fig. 2. Relationship of absorbed microwave energy with heating time for different
materials.
temperature rising, which indicated that the direct heat irradiation
out of the tested materials yielded little effect on the medium tem-
perature in this designed apparatus. Compared to Fe3O4, although
the calculated absorbed energy of the activated carbon was bigger
than that of Fe3O4, the former surface temperature was much low-
er than that of the latter. The second type, such as MnO2, was com-
paratively sensitive to microwave. Its absorbed microwave energy
increased with the heat time, but a slow increase occurred from
120 s to 200 s. The surface temperatures of MnO2 were also very
high and close to 100 °C after microwave irradiation for 240 s,
which closed to and even exceed those of the activated carbon.
The third type, such as Al2O3, was slightly sensitive to microwave
and could absorb microwave to slowly enhance its temperature.
Its curve shape was alike with that of MnO2, but the absorbed
microwave energy was less than that of MnO2. The temperature in-
crease of Al2O3 was less than the first and the second type. The
fourth one, such as SiO2, CaCO3, CaO, was not sensitive to micro-
wave and hardly absorbed microwave energy, so the surface tem-
perature rising of these materials were not obvious. After 240 s
microwave irradiation, the surface temperature did not exceed
35 °C in the case of room temperature close to about 27 °C .
Above-mentioned description of the classification and the
experimental phenomena were very similar to previous reports.
For instance, Wong (1975) and Tinga (1988, 1989) classified based
on heating rate his tested materials into hyperactive, active, diffi-
cult-to-heat, inactive. According to their classification, C, Fe3O4,
MnO2 were hyperactive, Al2O3 difficult-to-heat, SiO2, CaCO3, CaO
inactive, which agrees well with author’s category except MnO2
falling in the second type. At the same time, Fig. 2 showed that
white-colored materials such as SiO2, CaCO3, CaO, Al2O3, showed
weak ability to absorb microwaves, while dark-colored matters
such as MnO2, Fe3O4, activated carbon, strongly absorbed micro-
waves, which gives a similar conclusion to that of Ford and Pei
4. Conclusions
Based on the theory of microwave transportation and interac-
tion mechanism with materials, a new simple and practical meth-
od, using water as the medium material to indirectly reflect
microwave absorption of the tested materials, was invented to
quantitatively measure and to compare the ability of different
materials in absorbing microwave energy. The factors affecting
the reliability of the measurement were discussed. According to
the developed method, seven materials were tested about the abil-
ity of microwave absorbing, and the results showed good consis-
tence with previous reports. In addition, the experimental results
showed that it is not appropriate to use the rate of surface heating
to infer the microwave absorption behaviour by a given material,
but that the method presented provides an alternative, according
to which the absorption can be quantified directly.
Acknowledgement
This work was financially supported by the Fund of Excellent
Academic Talent Leader in Higher Education Institutes of Guangxi
of China.
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