Preparation of ultrafine silver powders with controllable size and morphology

The ultrafine silver powders were prepared by liquid reduction method using Arabic gum as dispersant.The effects of different dispersants,pH values,and temperature on the morphology and particle size of silver powders were investigated.It is found that Arabic gum can better adsorb on silver particles via chemical adsorption,and it shows the best dispersive effect among all the selected dispersants.The particle size of silver powders can be finely tuned from 0.34 to 4.09μm by adjusting pH values,while the morphology of silver powders can be tuned by changing the temperature.The silver powders with high tap density higher than 4.0 g/cm3 were successfully prepared in a wide temperature range of 21.8-70°C.Especially,the tap density is higher than 5.0 g/cm3 when the temperature is optimized to be 50°C.The facile process and high silver concentration of this method make it a promising way to prepare high quality silver powders for electronic paste.

Preparation of micro-sized and uniform spherical Ag powders by novel wet-chemical method

A novel wet-chemical method was presented for the preparation of the micro-sized and uniform spherical Ag powders on a mass-production scale.The well-defined particles were synthesized by mixing the iron(II) sulfate heptahydrate solution with silver nitrate solution directly by high-speed stirring at room temperature.It is found that a large number of micro-sized and uniform spherical particles with rough surfaces are obtained.The mass ratio of iron(II) sulfate heptahydrate to silver nitrate greatly affects the shape of particles,and when it is relatively low,spherical particles cannot be obtained.The reaction temperature has a great impact on the particle size.As the reaction temperature increases from 8 to 15°C,the mean diameter of particles decreases from 3.5 to 1.6 μm.The additive n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone improves the surface smoothness and compactness of the particles while the particle size is kept unchanged.Scanning electron microscopy,X-ray diffractometry and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were used to characterize the particle products.

Fabrication and Characterization of Nano Silver Powder Prepared by Spray Pyrolysis

Silver powder was fabricated by spray pyrolysis, using 2%-20% AgNO3 solution, 336-500 mL/h flux of AgNO3 solution, 0.28-0.32 MPa flux of carrier gas and in the 620-820 ℃ temperature range. The effects of furnace set temperature, concentration of AgNO3 aqueous solution, flux of AgNO3 aqueous solution as well as carrier gas on the morphology and particle size distribution of silver powder, were investigated. The experimental results showed that with the high concentration of AgNO3 aqueous solution, the average grain size of silver decreased with the increasing of furnace set temperature. But the gain size distribution was not homogenous, the discontinuous grain growth occurred. With the low concentration of AgNO3 aqueous solution, the higher furnace set temperature made the nano sliver grains sintered together to grow. Nano silver powder about 100 nm was fabricated by spray pyrolysis, using 2wt% AgNO3 solutions, 336 mL/h flux of AgNO3 aqueous solution, 0.32 MPa flux of carrier gas at 720 ℃ furnace set temperature.

Monodisperse silver microspheres: A facile BSA template method

The spherical silver mirco/nano-particles with narrow size distributions were obtained by chemical reduction of silver ammonia solution with ascorbic acid as reducing agent and bovine serum albumin (BSA) as bio-template. The effects of the concentration of Ag+ ions, BSA and ammonia, reactive temperature on the silver morphology and particle sizes were investigated. SEM, TEM and XRD were employed to characterize the morphology and structures of the prepared silver mirco/nano-particles. The results show that the spherical silver particle with smooth surface and narrow size distributions can be obtained by controlling the concentration of Ag+ ions, BSA, reaction temperature, etc. By controlling the above parameters, the silver spherical mirco/nano-particles with particle sizes ranging from 0.2 to 2.3 m can be well prepared, which is expected to be used in manufacturing high performance electronic pastes.