Synthesis of uniform spherical silver powder without dispersants in a confined impinging-jet reactor

Abstract

Sliver powder is the most common and extensively utilized precious metal powder in electronics, primarily for electronic paste. Herein, micron-sized spherical silver powder was synthesized via a liquid phase reduction method employing silver nitrate as the source of silver and ascorbic acid as the reducing agent in a confined impinging jet reactor (CIJR). The impact of the molar ratio between silver nitrate and ascorbic acid, the flow rate, and the temperature on the particle size of silver powder was investigated. The optimal process conditions for silver powder are as follows: maintain a molar ratio of 1:1 and control the feeding rate at 10 ml/min while operating at 50 ° C. The confined impinging jet reactor offers enhanced control over reaction conditions during the synthesis of silver powder, surpassing the capabilities of traditional batch reactors. The aforementioned optimized methodology was employed to successfully synthesize uniform and spherical silver powder (with an aspect ratio approaching 1) in the low Reynolds number jet, resulting in an average particle size of d₅₀ = 0.83 μm and a standard deviation of 0.07, without the addition of dispersant. The synthesis method presented here improves the performance of silver powder, simplifies the production process, reduces energy consumption, and minimizes waste generation. These advances yield significant environmental and economic benefits. In the future, with the continuous development and optimization of microreactor technology, this synthesis method is anticipated to play a more prominent role in the commercial-scale production and application of micrometer-sized silver powder.