Isotropical Conductive Adhesives Filled with Silver Nanowires

In this study, a solution-phase method was demonstrated to generate silver (Ag) nanowires with diameters in the range of 30 similar to 50nm and lengths of up to similar to 50 mu m, which was proceed by reducing silver nitrate with ethylene glycol in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). Fundamental material characterizations including X-ray diffraction transmission electro microscopy (TEM) and scanning electro microscopy (SEM) were conducted on these Ag nanowires. A novel kind of isotropical conductive adhesives (ICA) was prepared by using these Ag nanowires as conductive filler. Electrical property including bulk resistivity and mechanical property including shear strength were investigated and compared with that of conventional ICA filled with micrometer-sized Ag particles or nanometer-sized Ag particles. The average diameter of these Ag particles is about 1 mu m and 100 nm respectively. The results shown that ICA filled Ag nanowires exhibited higher conductivity, higher shear strength and low percolation threshold value than traditional ICA. Possible conductive mechanism was discussed based on theory calculation.