Understanding the mechanisms and
kinetics of thermal sintering
between silver nanowires (NWs) is critical for multiple emerging applications.
We use molecular dynamics simulations to reveal the kinetics and mechanisms
of sintering between stacked silver NW pairs with nonparallel axes,
which realistically mimics geometric configurations in experimentally
relevant NW networks. Relative NW orientation has a hitherto-unknown
but significant and nonlinear influence on inter-NW neck growth. This
is due to a dynamic interaction between surprisingly high rigid-body
rotation of the NWs, atomic diffusion, and dislocation generation
that demarcates diffusion-dominated and dislocation-dominated regimes
of neck growth. Thus, the current assumption that the relative orientation
of NWs has a purely geometric and quasi-static effect on NW sintering
is incomplete. Our findings also stress the need to consider the effect
of large local rotations and the consequently large spatial gradients
in neck growth on sintering-driven properties (e.g., electrical) of
NW networks, yielding new knowledge that will play a key role in the
rational design and processing of NW networks.
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