Sintering and electrical properties of silver powders prepared by high-pressure water atomization

Silver powders were produced at rate of 2 kg/min by water atomization with the pressure of 80 MPa. SEM observation showed that the silver particles had various types of morphologies such as spherical, irregular and coarse. The volume average particle size and standard deviation determined by particle size analyzer was 8.2 μm and 4.15 μm, respectively. XRD revealed that as-prepared powders crystallized to silver with high crystallinity. TMA revealed that the shrinkage of as-prepared silver powders was about 25% after classified to 2.5 μm and then comparable with those obtained by chemical reduction method. The specific resistivity of silver paste obtained by silver powders derived from water atomization was superior to that obtained by silver powders derived from chemical reduction method.