Preparation of Silver Powder used for Solar Cell Paste by Reduction Process

The preparation of fine silver particles is getting great attention due to their applications in electrical fields such as the fabrication of conductive pastes used in solar cell metallization. This study deals with the preparation of silver powders by a chemical reduction method using silver nitrate as a starting material, and either sodium or ammonium hydroxides as reactants, and formaldehyde as a reducing agent. The effects of ratio change between the silver nitrate and the base concentrations, on the characteristics of the silver micro particles, were examined. The physicochemical properties of the powders were evaluated using XRD, SEM, and granulometry. It was shown that the particle size and shape of the powder depend on the molar ratio of silver nitrate to base and, on the base nature.