Synthesis and characterization of low temperature Sn nanoparticles for the fabrication of highly conductive ink

Abstract

To fabricate a low cost, highly conductive ink for inkjet printing, we synthesized a gram scale of uniformly sized Sn nanoparticles by using a modified polyol process and observed a significant size-dependent melting temperature depression from 234.1 °C for bulk Sn to 177.3 °C for 11.3 nm Sn nanoparticles. A 20 wt% of Sn nanoparticles was dispersed in the 50% ethylene glycol: 50% isopropyl alcohol mixed solvent for the appropriate viscosity (11.6 cP) and surface tension (32 dyn cm(-1)). To improve the electrical property, we applied the surface treatments of hydrogen reduction and plasma ashing. The two treatments had the effect of diminishing the sheet resistance from 1 kΩ/sq to 50 Ω/sq. In addition, conductive patterns (1 cm × 1 cm) were successfully drawn on the Si wafer using an inkjet printing instrument with conductive Sn ink. The maximum resistivity for an hour of sintering at 250 °C was 64.27 µΩ cm, which is six times higher than the bulk Sn resistivity (10.1 µΩ cm).

A Review of Conductive Metal Nanomaterials as Conductive, Transparent, and Flexible Coatings, Thin Films, and Conductive Fillers: Different Deposition Methods and Applications

“…In terms of cost and safety, ZnO NPs are a promising alternative to ITO. Tin (Sn) NP is another metal nanomaterial; the low cost of production of this NP as ink favors its use with the ink-jet printing method [53,54]. A sintering step follows deposition of Sn NPs; as is the case with other metal NPs, the sintering temperature of Sn NPs is size-dependent and it is totally different than the bulk Sn.…”

“…This method also is suitable for large-area and roll-to-roll production of films. There are many reports on producing ink from Ag NPs [13,14,29,56], Au NPs [34,38,57], Cu NPs [40,41], Al NPs [55], and Sn NPs [53], and subsequent deposition of conductive thin films and circuits from these nanomaterials by ink-jet printing methods [12,17,20,58,59]. …”

Recent Advances in Carbon Supported Metal Nanoparticles Preparation for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Low Temperature Fuel Cells

“…Over the past decade the polyol process has been used to synthesize metallic nanoparticles such as Pt [132,133], Pd [88,134], Au [135], Fe [136], Ni [137,138], Co [139], Ag [140,141], Cu [142,143], Sn [144], and Rh [73]. Platinum is one of the most active metal catalysts toward many electrochemical reactions, such as oxidation of small molecules and reduction of molecular oxygen in PEMFC.…”

Synthesis and melting behaviour of Bi, Sn and Sn–Bi nanostructured alloy

“…For this sample a melting temperature depression was not observed due to the relatively large size and low uniformity of the particles [25,36,37].…”