A new approach causing the patterns fabricated by silver nanoparticles to be conductive without sintering.
Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) with a mean size of about 90 nm were synthesized by polyol reduction of silver nitrate with ethylene glycol (EG) in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The Ag NPs undergo a spontaneous coalescence in the presence of chloride ions even without a traditional sintering process which occurs at a relatively high temperature. Such behavior can cause a rapid decrease in the resistivity of the patterns fabricated by Ag NPs. Conductive silver lines were successfully fabricated on FR-4 substrate using this method. The resulting conductivity of the silver lines reached about 16% of the bulk silver value, which enables fabrication of conductive patterns on some electronic devices.
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China. TangYao2003@163.com
Yao
Y
Tang
Wei
W
He
Guoyun
G
Zhou
Shouxu
S
Wang
Xiaojian
X
Yang
Zhihua
Z
Tao
Juncheng
J
Zhou