• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.14 no.3 s.62
• /
• pp.165-172
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyze the sintering characteristics of gold and silver nanoparticles. In this study, gold and silver nanoparticles were prepared by using Inert Gas Cndensation (IGC). The sintering temperatures for gold and silver nanoparticles were $100{\sim}1000^{\circ}C\;and\'100{\sim}500^{\circ}C$, respectively. The sintering characteristics of gold and silver nanoparticles prepared by IGC were evaluated by X-ray diffraction(XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Gold and silver nanoparticles with the size of $1{\sim}100\;nm\;and\;10{\sim}100\;nm$, respectively, were obtained. The size of sintered gold and silver nanoparticles increased with an increase in the sintering temperature. XRD data showed that silver nanoparticles were similar with polycrystal single-phase.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.601-606
• /
• 2016

In this study, in order to analyze the low-temperature sintering process of silver and copper nanoparticles, we calculate their melting temperatures and surface melting temperatures with respect to particle size. For this calculation, we introduce the concept of mean-squared displacement of the atom proposed by Shi (1994). Using a parameter defined by the vibrational component of melting entropy, we readily obtained the surface and bulk melting temperatures of copper and silver nanoparticles. We also calculated the absorption cross-section of nanoparticles for variation in the wavelength of light. By using the calculated absorption cross-section of the nanoparticles at the melting temperature, we obtained the laser threshold energy for the sintering process with respect to particle size and wavelength of laser. We found that the absorption cross-section of silver nanoparticles has a resonant peak at a wavelength of close to 350 nm, yielding the lowest threshold energy. We calculated the intensity distribution around the nanoparticles using the finite-difference time-domain method and confirmed the resonant excitation of silver nanoparticles near the wavelength of the resonant peak.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.63-67
• /
• 2020

This study investigated the influence of various sintering pressures of ZnS nanoparticles prepared by hydrothermal synthesis performed at 220 ℃ for 20 h. The hydrothermally synthesized ZnS nanoparticles formed a cubic phase. The ZnS nanoparticles were sintered using a hot-press process at 850 ℃ for 2 h under pressures of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 MPa. The ZnS ceramics indicate the cubic phase is the major phase and the hexagonal phase is the minor phase. In the ZnS ceramics, as the sintering pressure increased, a decrement in the hexagonal phase was confirmed. When the sintering pressure equaled or exceeded 30 MPa, the transmittance and density improved with reductions in porosity and hexagonal phase. A sintering pressure of 60 MPa delivered the highest transmittance (69.7%).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2015.08a
• /
• pp.88.1-88.1
• /
• 2015

In recent printed electronics technology, Photo-Sintering, a technique for sintering materials using a light source, has attracted attention as an alternative to time-consuming high-temperature thermal processes. The key principle of this technique is the selective heating of a strongly absorbent thin film, while preventing the heating of the transparent substrate by the light source. Many recent studies have used a flash lamp as the light source, and investigated the material-dependent effect of the width or intensity of the pulsed light. However, the flash lamp for sintering is not suitable for industry yet, because of needing too high power to sinter for a large scale. In energy-saving and large-scale sintering, LED technologies would be very useful in the near future. In this work, we investigated a sintering process for silver nanoparticles using UV-LED array. Silver nanoparticles in ink were inkjet-printed on a $1{\times}1cm$ area of a PET film and photo-sintered by 365 nm UV-LED module. A sheet resistance value as low as $72.6m{\Omega}/sq$ (2.3 - 4.5 times that of bulk silver) was obtained from the UV-LED sintering at 300 mW/cm2 for 50 min.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.17 no.8
• /
• pp.568-574
• /
• 2009

We investigated the sintering and consolidation phenomena of silver nanoparticles under various thermal treatment conditions when they were patterned by a contact printing technique on polyimide substrate films. The sintering of metastable silver nanoparticles commenced at 180 $^{\circ}C$, where the point necks were formed at the contact points of the nanoparticles to reduce the overall surface area and the overall surface energy. As the temperature was increased up to 250 $^{\circ}C$, silver atoms diffused from the grain boundaries at the intersections and continued to deposit on the interior surface of the pores, thereby filling up the remaining space. When the consolidation temperature exceeded 270 $^{\circ}C$, the capillary force between the spherical silver particles and polyimide flat surface induced the permanent deformation of the polyimide films, leaving crater-shaped indentation marks. The bonding force between the patterned silver metal and polyimide substrate was greatly increased by the heat treatment temperature and the mechanical interlocking by the metal particle indentation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.283-288
• /
• 2008

The effect of sintering aids and glass-frit on the densification and resistivity of silver paste was investigated in an effort to enhance the sintered density and electrical conductivity of the silver electrode. To prepare Pb-free silver paste for use at low sintering temperatures, two commercial silver powders ($0.8\;{\mu}m$ and $1.6\;{\mu}m$ in size) and 5wt.% lab-synthesized nanoparticles (30-50 nm in size) as a sintering aids were mixed with 3 wt.% or 6 wt.% of glass frit ($Bi_2O_3$-based) using a solvent and three roll mills. Thick films from the silver paste were prepared by means of screen printing on an alumina substrate followed by sintering at $450^{\circ}C$ to $550^{\circ}C$ for 15 min. Silver thick films from the paste with bimodal particles showed a high packing density, high densification during sintering and low resistivity compared to films created using monomodal particles. Silver nanoparticles as a sintering aid enhanced the densification of commercial silver powder at a low sintering temperature and induced low resistivity in the silver thick film. The glass frit also enhanced the densification of the films through liquid phase sintering; however, the optimum content of glass frit is necessary to ensure that a dense microstructure and low resistivity are obtained, as excessive glass-frit can provoke low conductivity due to the interconnection of the glass phase with the high resistivity between the silver particles.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.349-355
• /
• 2017

Zinc sulphide (ZnS) nanoparticles were fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis at $180^{\circ}C$ for 12 h. Two kinds of ZnS powder (hydrothermal synthesized ZnS and commercial ZnS) were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for phase and microstructure, respectively. The XRD patterns showed that all ZnS nanoparticles have a sphalerite (cubic) structure. The nanoparticles of two different ZnS powders were sintered by spark plasma sintering. The sintered ZnS were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and FT-IR. We found that the transmittance of the infrared region is highly dependent on the density and crystal structure of sintered ZnS and the purity of the starting ZnS powder.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.158-162
• /
• 2015

To substitute indium tin oxide (ITO), many substituents have been studied such as metal nanowires, carbon based materials, 2D materials, and conducting polymers. These materials are not good enough to apply to an electrode because theses exhibit relatively high resistance. So metal grids are required as an additionalelectrode to improve the conductivities of substituents. The metal grids were printed by electrohydrodynamic printing system using Ag nanoparticle based ink. The Ag grids showed high uniformity and the line width was about $10{\mu}m$. The Ag nanoparticles are surrounded by dispersants such as unimolecular and polymer to prevent aggregation between Ag nanoparticles. The dispersants lead to low conductivity of Ag grids. Thus, the sintering process of Ag nanoparticles is strongly recommended to remove dispersants and connect each nanoparticles. For sintering process, the interface and microstructure of the Ag grid were controlled in 1.0 torr Ar atmosphere at aound $400^{\circ}C$ of temperature. From the sintering process, the uniformity of the Ag grid was improved and the defects on the Ag grids were reduced. As a result, the resistivity of Ag grid was greatly reduced up to $5.03({\pm}0.10){\times}10^{-6}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. The metal grids embedded substrates containing low pressure Ar sintered Ag grids showed 90.4% of transmittance in visible range with $0.43{\Omega}/{\square}$ of sheet resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2016.11a
• /
• pp.134-134
• /
• 2016

The effect of different thermal treatments on the sub-50 nm copper nanoparticles is examined in the aspects of chemical, electrical and surface morphology. The copper nanoparticles are chemically synthesized and fabricated for paste-type solution. Simple bar coating method is practiced as a deposition process to form copper thin film on a typical slide glass. Deposited copper thin films are annealed by two different routes: general tube furnace with 99.99 % Ar atmosphere and selective laser sintering process. The thermal behavior of the different thermal-treated copper thin films is compared by SEM, XRD, FT-IR and XPS analysis. In this study, the laser sintering process ensures low annealing temperature, fast working speed and ambient-accessible route. Moreover, the laser-sintered copper thin film shows good electrical property and enhanced chemical stability than conventional thermal annealing process. Consequently, the proposed laser sintering process can be compatible with plastic substrate for flexible applications.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.32 no.11
• /
• pp.4099-4102
• /
• 2011