Easy and large scale synthesis silver nanodendrites: Highly effective filler for isotropic conductive adhesives

Dendritic silver (Ag) nanoparticles have been successfully prepared by an easy and large scale liquid-phase reduction method. Transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) have shown that the Ag particles prepared by this method are pure and with uniform dendritic morphology. The bulk resistivity and bonding strength of isotropic conductive adhesives (ICAs) filled with Ag nanodendrite and micrometer-sized Ag have been measured. The results show that the dendritic morphology of Ag nanoparticles has a strong effect for improving the reinforcement of the composite electrical performance. ICA filled with small amounts of Ag nanodendrites exhibits lower bulk resistivity and higher bonding strength than ICA filled with micrometer-sized Ag. When ICA is filled with 50 wt.% micrometer-sized Ag and 10 wt.% Ag nanodendrites, the bulk resistivity is 1.3×10 ^-4 Ω cm, and the bonding strength reaches 18.9 MPa.