Nano/micro silver powders for electronic materials

The paper presents a new type of structural materials, namely silver nanoparticles deposited on the silver microcrystalline particles, designed to obtain some conductive inks or pastes. It is known that beside optical, thermo-catalytic, photo-catalytic and bactericidal properties, the silver nanoparticles have a low melting temperature and some exceptional sintering characteristics against the bulk material. The sintering of these silver nanoparticles begins at 150°C, while this process starts in the range of 650... 700°C even for very fine microcrystalline powders. We developed a chemical method for obtaining silver powders with lowered melting point and improved sinterability. The powders were characterized by chemical, UV-VIS, DLS, SEM and TEM analyses.