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Aluminum nanoparticles are considered promising as alternatives to conventional ink materials, replacing silver and copper nanoparticles, due to their extremely low cost and low melting temperature. However, a serious obstacle to realizing their use as conductive ink materials is the oxidation of aluminum. In this research, we synthesized the oxide-free aluminum nanoparticles using catalytic decomposition and an oleic acid coating method, and these materials were applied to conductive ink for the first time. The injection time of oleic acid determines the size of the aluminum nanoparticles by forming a self-assembled monolayer on the nanoparticles instead of allowing the formation of an oxide phase. Fabricated nanoparticles were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to verify their structural and chemical composition. In addition, conductive inks made of these nanoparticles exhibit electrical properties when they are sintered at over 300 °C in a reducing atmosphere. This result shows that aluminum nanoparticles can be used as an alternative conductive material in printed electronics and can solve the cost issues associated with noble metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By treating oleylamine (OA)-capped Ag–Cu nanoparticles with tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), we obtained metal nanoparticles that are suspended in polar solvents and sinterable at low temperatures. The simple process with ultra sonication enables synthesis of monodispersed and high purity nanoparticles in an organic base, where the resulting nanoparticles are dispersible in polar solvents such as ethanol and isopropyl alcohol. To investigate the surface characteristics, we conducted Fourier-transform infrared and zeta-potential analyses. After thermal sintering at 200 °C, which is approximately 150 °C lower than the thermal decomposition temperature of OA, an electrically conductive thin film was obtained. Electrical resistivity measurements of the TMAH-treated ink demonstrate that surface modified nanoparticles have a low resistivity of 13.7 × 10−6 Ω cm. These results confirm the prospects of using low-temperature sinterable nanoparticles as the electrode layer for flexible printed electronics without damaging other stacked polymer layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we synthesized uniform Cu–Ag core–shell nanoparticles using a facile two-step process that consists of thermal decomposition and galvanic displacement methods. The core–shell structure of these nanoparticles was confirmed through characterization using transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction. Furthermore, we investigated the oxidation stability of the Cu–Ag core–shell nanoparticles in detail. Both qualitative and quantitative x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses confirm that the Cu–Ag core–shell nanoparticles have considerably higher oxidation stability than Cu nanoparticles. Finally, we formulated a conductive ink using the synthesized nanoparticles and coated it onto glass substrates. Following the sintering process, we compared the resistivity of the Cu–Ag core–shell nanoparticles with that of the Cu nanoparticles. The results of this study clearly show that the Cu–Ag core–shell nanoparticles can potentially be used as an alternative to Ag nanoparticles because of their superior oxidation stability and electrical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]