Electrophoretic concentration and production of conductive coatings from silver nanoparticles stabilized with non-ionic surfactant Span 80

Abstract Spherical silver nanoparticles with a diameter of 9.4 nm and stabilized by a non-ionic surfactant Span 80 were obtained by a microemulsion synthesis in nonpolar media. Nanoparticles have a thick adsorption layer of about 30 nm in the initial organosol and they are coated with a surfactant monolayer at low concentrations of Span 80. It was shown that nanoparticles have a high value of electrokinetic potential (more than 30 mV). High electrokinetic potential made it possible to obtain concentrated silver organosols by non-aqueous electrophoresis. The metal content in the separated concentrates reached 2.35 M. Mirror-like films of various thicknesses (from 700 nm to 8 µm) and high conductivity (up to 0.1 μOhm/□) were produced by heat treatment of concentrates at temperatures of 200 and 250 °C. The silver content in the films reached 96% mass.