Sintering process of silver nanoparticles in ink-jet printed conductive microstructures - Molecular dynamics approach

The electronic microstructures performed by ink-jet printing nanosilver-contained inks are nonconductive just after the printing. To obtain good electrical conductivity they require the additional energy, mostly supplied during a heating process in relatively high temperature (above 200°C). Such high temperature is not convenient for the most polymers which would play a role of flexible substrates for circuits performed by ink-jet printing technique. The better understanding of sintering process is required to reduce this temperature to a more acceptable. The deep study on the sintering process of silver nanoparticles seems to be useful for further activities towards the reducing process temperature. Within this paper the sintering process of commercially available ink (AX JP-6n, produced by Amepox Microelectronics Ltd.) were investigated. The activation energy of two stages of sintering process were estimated. The experimental results were complemented with the results obtained within molecular dynamics simulations. The molecular dynamics were used for calculations of electrostatic energy between ligands and silver nanoparticles. The Material Studio from Accelerys software were used. Calculations were performed by using the three dimensional model containing the surface made of silver and one particle of ligand.