title: Hierarchically-structured silver nanoflowers for highly conductive metallic inks with dramatically reduced filler concentration.
abstract: Silver has long been employed as an electrically conductive component, and morphology-dependent properties have been actively investigated. Here we present a novel scalable synthesis method of flower-shaped silver nanoparticles (silver nanoflowers, Ag NFs). The preferential affinity of citrate molecules on (111) surface of silver enabled spontaneous anisotropic growth of Ag NFs (bud size: 250~580 nm, single crystalline petal thickness: 9~22 nm) with high reproducibility and a high yield of >99.5%. The unique hierarchical structure resulted in coalescence of petals over 80~120 °C which was practically employed in conductive inks to construct percolation pathways among Ag NFs. The ink with only 3 wt% of Ag NFs provided two orders of magnitude greater conductivity (1.008 × 105Scm-1), at a low curing temperature of 120 °C, compared with the silver nanoparticle ink with a much higher silver concentration (50 wt%). This extraordinary property may provide an excellent opportunity for Ag NFs for practical applications in printable and flexible electronics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Muhammed Ajmal
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: C
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Faseela
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: K P
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Swati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea.|Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seunghyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baik