Synthesis and low-temperature sintering of tin-doped silver nanoparticles

Ag nanoparticles have been widely used in electronic packaging due to their low-temperature sintering properties. It is important to lower the melting point of Ag nanoparticles to achieve a better electrical/thermal conduction and mechanical strength. In this paper, a large amount of Sn-doped Ag nanoparticles with a size less than 10 nm were synthesized and the EDS and XRD data showed that the Sn atoms entered the Ag lattice. The sintering properties of the nanoparticles baked at different temperatures was investigated by SEM and a larger coalescence was observed for the Sn-doped Ag nanoparticles compared to the pure Ag nanoparticles, indicating that Sn helped the sintering of the nanoparticles. TGA and DSC experiments were also carried out to study the sintering process in detail.