A fundamental study on silver flakes for conductive adhesives

Silver (Ag) flakes are widely used as fillers for electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs). The Ag flakes need to be pretreated with organic lubricants to ensure the proper rheology of the ECAs. Lubricants on the Ag flakes influence rheology, conductivity and other properties of ECAs. The surface composition of a Ag flake was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The nature of the lubricant on a Ag flake and the interaction between the lubricant and Ag flake surface were studied by diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy. Thermal decomposition of the lubricant was also studied by differential scanning calorimetry. In addition, the effects of some chemical compounds on lubricant removal were also investigated.