Room-Temperature Joining of Silver Nanoparticles Using Potassium Chloride Solution for Flexible Electrode Application

Abstract

Flexible electrodes have broad applications in microelectronics. In this work, flexible electrodes were fabricated through chemically induced joining of silver nanoparticles at room temperature. After the joining process, the resistance of the silver track decreased by 8 orders of magnitude. The joining parameters were systematically investigated including the concentration of the chemical solution, sintering time, and drying temperature. This chemical method achieved the same effect at room temperature as compared to the methods using thermal sintering. The changes of the microstructure and the surface composition of silver nanoparticles were characterized to better understand the nanojoining process at room temperature.