title: Study of sintering behavior of vapor forms of 1-octanethiol coated copper nanoparticles for application to ink-jet printing technology.
abstract: Sub-50 nm copper nanoparticles coated with sub-5 nm 1-octanethiol layer for oxidation inhibition were examined to confirm the 1-octanethiol removal temperature as the sub-50 nm copper nanoparticles are sintered. As a result, 1-octanethiol Self-Assembled Multi-layers (SAMs) on sub-50 nm copper nanoparticles were successfully removed before sintering of copper nanoparticles so that a high density of copper line could be obtained. Finally, the line resistivity was measured and compared to verify the effect of sintering in different atmospheres. As a result, electrical resistivity of the copper pattern sintered in hydrogen atmosphere was measured at 6.96 x 10(-6) ohm-cm whereas that of the copper pattern sintered in mixed gas atmosphere was measured at 2.62 x 10(-5) ohm-cm. Thus, sintering of copper patterns was successfully done to show low electrical resistivity values. Moreover, removal of 1-octanethiol coating after sintering process was confirmed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. By showing no sulfur content, XPS results indicate that 1-octanethiol is completely removed. Therefore, the vapor form of 1-octanethiol coating layers can be safely used as an oxidation inhibition layer for low temperature sintering processes and ink-jet applications.
authors: Department of Materials Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan 426-791, Korea.
authors: Jinhyeong
authors: J
authors: Kwon
authors: Shinyoung
authors: S
authors: Park
authors: Md Mominul
authors: MM
authors: Haque
authors: Young-Seok
authors: YS
authors: Kim
authors: Caroline Sunyong
authors: CS
authors: Lee