PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SILVER-PALLADIUM ALLOY FINE POWDER

Abstract: According to the present invention, hydrazine or a hydrazine compound is added to an acidic solution containing silver and palladium as ions to thereby reduce-separating silver-palladium alloy fine powders whose average particle diameter is 0.01 - 1.0 micron, and further, in case of necessity, said powders are heat-treated at 100 - 500°C in an inert atmosphere or vacuum to thereby obtain silver-palladium alloy fine powders whose average particle diameter is 0.01 - 1.0 micron and that are usable for the manufacture of ceramic capacitors.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the invention The present invention relates to a process for the production of a silver-palladium alloy fine powder that is used for the production of electrode mate­ rials, contacts or the like used in the electronic industries field, in particular for the production of ceramic capacitors or the like. 2. Description of the Prior Art In the electronic industries field, sil­ ver-palladium pastes have been widely used for thick film conductive circuits employed in screen printing. The objects of using silver-palladium are to repress the migration occurring when wiring is made by the use of silver alone, to raise the melting point of silver by adding palladium so that the conditions for using substrates at desired temperatures are applicable, and the like. In recent years, with the small size and preci­ sion of electronic parts, there are growing demands for decreasing the thickness of conductive films to several microns and further narrowing the width of and between wiring circuits (to, for instance, 100 mi­ crons). To meet such demands, it is required that the conductive metal powder constituting the paste should have a small particle diameter, an even grain size and a uniform composition. In contrast with this, the fact is that the silver-palladium paste has usually been used in the manner of mixing separately manufactured silver powder and palladium powder for a very long period of time until a mutual uniform dispersion is achieved. This process includes the following problems: (1) A very long period of time such as, for instance, several tens of hours is needed for dispersion; and in addition thereto (2) The heterogeneity in composition in the microscop­ ic region that is inevitable in a mixture can never be avoidable. Accordingly, the demands for said electronic parts can never be satisfied to the full. In addition, the use of the usual sil­ ver-palladium mixture for the inner electrode of the ceramic capacitors has been followed by such disadvan­ tages that delamination is very likely to occur between the electrode and the ceramic and the capacity of the capacitor is likely to be lowered. This is because said mixed powder causes abnormal expansion and shrinkage accompanying the alloy formation during the firing at temperatures before the ceramic is fired and increases its strength, namely in the range of 100 - 500°C. This tendency is violent as the film thickness of dielectrics is thinner. As the way to solve the above problems, it has been considered to use a silver-palladium alloy powder. Some reports thereon have been made. For instance. there are enumerated Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 11701/1983, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 132503/1984 and Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 224111/1984. From the viewpoint of the powder manufacturing process there is enumerated Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 56125/1978. However, the abovementioned prior art processes for the production of silver-palladium alloy powder all relate to heat-reducing a mixed oxide or mixed hydroxide of silver and palladium in a current of hydrogen (Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 11701/1983, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 132503/1984 and Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 56125/1978) or to mixing the silver powder and palladium powder to the full and then heating same at 300°C in the air (Japanese Laid Open Patent Applica­ tion No. 224111/1984). However, these processes are not industrially profitable in the points of needing precursors to be alloyed, namely oxide, hydroxide or 2 kinds of metal powders, using a dangerous gas (hydrogen),and the like. Further, heating to high temperatures in the air is not preferable because particles are mutually sintered, and silver and palladium are oxidized. In addition these prior art processes have included such problems that the powder prepared by said process is partially alloyed but is coexistent with silver and palladium powder, whereby delamination can never be prevented completely. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to elimi­ nate the usual problems as aforesaid and propose a process that is capable of manufacturing a sil­ ver-palladium alloy fine powder by means of a simple wet process and apparatus, said fine powder having a silver-palladium alloy composition which may be easily controlled, being free from delamination when used as the inner electrode of the ceramic capacitor and being usable profitably also in the electronic industries field. That is, the present invention comprises mixing hydrazine or a compound thereof (which is called a hydrazine compound hereinafter) with an acidic solution containing silver and palladium as ions; reduction-separating a silver-palladium alloy fine powder having an average particle diameter of 0.01 - 1.0 micron; thereafter optionally subjecting same to filtration, washing and drying in the usual manner; and further heat-treating, if necessary, same at temperatures of 100 - 500°C in an inert atmosphere or vacuum, thereby obtaining a sil­ ver-palladium alloy fine powder that has an average particle diameter of 0.01 - 1.0 micron and is free from delamination. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig.1 - Fig.3 are each an X-ray diffraction view of the known silver-palladium mixed powder (Pd 30 wt.%). Fig.1 illustrates the state of said powder not sub­ jected to heat-treatment, Fig.2 illustrates the state of said powder subjected to heat-treatment at 200°C × 60 min in N₂, and Fig.3 illustrates the state of said powder subjected to heat-treatment at 400°C × 60 min in N₂ respectively. Fig.4 - Fig.6 are each an X-ray diffraction view of the silver-palladium alloy fine powder (Pd 30 wt.%) according to the present invention. Fig.4 illustrates the state of said alloy fine powder not subjected to heat-treatment, Fig.5 illustrates the state of said alloy fine powder subjected to heat-treatment at 200°C × 60 min in N₂, and Fig.6 illustrates the state of said alloy fine powder subjected to heat-treatment at 400°C × 60 min in N₂ respectively. Fig.7 and Fig.8 are X-ray diffraction views of the silver-palladium alloy fine powder (Pd 30 wt.%) obtained by Example 1 and the silver-palladium alloy fine powder (Pd 20 wt.%) obtained by Example 2 respec­ tively. Fig.9 (a) and (b) are views illustrating the relationship between the temperature and the dimen­ sional change rate of the silver-palladium alloy fine powder obtained by Example 1 and the sil­ ver-palladium alloy fine powder obtained by Example 2 respectively. Fig.10 is an X-ray diffraction view of the silver-palladium fine powder obtained by Comparative Example 1. Fig.11 is a view illustrating the relationship between the temperature and the dimensional change rate of the silver-palladium fine powder obtained by Comparative Example 2, and Fig.12 is a view illustrat­ ing the relationship between the temperature and the dimensional change rate of the silver-palladium powder (Pd composition 30 wt.%) extracted from the commer­ cially available silver-palladium paste. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention employs a solution in which silver ions and palladium-ions coexist as the starting substance. As the source of silver ions, there is used an aqueous solution containing silver as ions, preferably an aqueous silver nitrate solution. As the source of palladium ions, there may be used any solution which contains palladium as ions, preferably an aqueous palladium nitrate solution. A palladium chloride solution is not preferable because chloride ions react with said coexistent silver ions to cause silver chloride precipitates which prohibit silver from being used effectively as ions of the starting substance, the final product is in danger of containing chlorine which has a bad influence as the wiring circuit material, and the like. Said aqueous silver nitrate solution and aqueous palladium nitrate solution are mixed into an acidic, preferably nitric acid solution. The "acidic solution" is indispensable for the production of a silver-palladium alloy fine powder. The preferable silver and palladium ion concentrations in the mixed solution are 10 - 200 g/ℓ respectively. The concentration ratio of silver to palladium can be selected according to the composition of the finally produced silver-palladium alloy fine powder. That is, the composition ratio of the silver-palladium alloy fine powder of the present invention can be controlled readily by changing the concentration ratio of the mixed solution of the starting substance, namely said mixed solution of silver and palladium. As the result of this, not only the alloy powder suitable for the paste for use in the silver-palladium thick film conductive circuit containing several % - ­ several tens % of palladium having been used indus­ trially but also the silver-palladium alloy fine powder having an extremely wide range of palladium contents can be produced. Next, a hydrazine compound is added to the mixed acidic solution of silver and palladium for reduction­ seprating silver ions and palladium ions in the form of fine powder. Further, the composition of said alloy powder is determined by migration of the concentration ratio of the mixed solution as it is to the separated powder. The utility of the present invention consists herein. The amount of the hydrazine compound added is suitably 2 - 10 times the equivalent required for reduction of silver ions and palladium ions contained in said silver-palladium mixed solution. In case said amount is less than 2 times, the reduction is insufficient or the reducing reaction takes a long period of time. In case said amount is more than 10 times, it incurs a loss of superfluous hydrazine compound. As the hydrazine compound to be used as the reducing agent there may be used any compound that contains hydrazine as a component and is able to reduce in the same action as that of hydrazine. In particu­ lar, hydrazine hydrate is preferable. The temperature of the reducing solution is preferably in the range of 10 - 100°C. In case said temperature is lower than said range, there is such a tendency that the reaction is delayed and further the composition of the alloy fine powder to be obtained is not homogenized, whilst in case said temperature is higher than 100°C, the operation becomes difficult because the solution may boil. In order to accelerate the reaction, there may be used a usual way such as stirring or the like so that the hydrazine compound may react effectively with the whole amount of silver ions and palladium ions con­ tained in the solution. The reaction is continued until bubbles caused with the progress of reaction disappear and no more change is observed. Next, the solution containing reduction-separated silver-palladium alloy fine powders in the slurry state may be subjected to solid-liquid separation in a usual manner so as to separate and recover said fine powders from said solution. The usual manner referred to herein may be any prior art manner such as gravita­ tional sedimentation, reduced-pressure filtration, centrifugal separation, pressure filtration or the like. Next, the solid-liquid separated and wet fine powders may also be subjected to after-treatment in a usual manner. In other words, said fine powders are washed with water to remove the solution component attached onto said fine powders. Then, prior to drying, the fine powders may be washed with a low boiling solvent, thereby replacement removing the water attached onto the fine powders. In this case a hydroxyl group-free solvent such as acetone is used as the low boiling solvent. A hydroxyl group-containing solvent is not profitable in that said solvent will not operative effectively and further not preferable from the viewpoint of safety operation because said so­ lution is subjected to spontaneous combustion by catalysis of the silver-palladium fine powder. Next, the separation-recovered alloy fine powder with the low boiling solvent attached thereon is dried to thereby remove the low boiling solvent by volatilization. The atmosphere under which drying is conducted may be any one of air, inert gas and vacuum, but normally it is preferable to conduct drying in air. The drying temperature is not specifically limited. When drying is conducted in air, it may be conducted at temperatures in the range of room temperature to about 90°C. The obtained silver-palladium alloy fine powder may then be heat-treated at temperatures of 100 - ­ 500°C in an inert atmosphere or vacuum. Owing to this heat-treatment, the surface area of the sil­ ver-palladium alloy fine powder is decreased, and simultaneously the silver-palladium alloy fine powder is more uniform in structure. In this connection, it is to be noted that in case this heat-treating temperature is less than 100°C, the effect of said heat-treatment is not sufficient. Even when said heat-treating temperature is in excess of 500°C, in contrast, there can not be seen any development of the surface area and the structural uniformed state. This heat-treatment may be performed on the water soluble liquid slurry per se from which the alloy fine powder is formed, or may be performed on the drying-recovered fine powder using any one of dry and wet methods. The specific surface area of the silver-palladium alloy fine powder before the heat-treatment is 5 - 30 m²/g. One example thereof, although varying depend­ ing on the factors such as the manufacturing con­ ditions, particle diameter, powder composition and the like, is shown in Table-1. The results obtained from the silver-palladium alloy fine powder after the heat-treatment is shown in Table-2. It can be seen from Table-2 that the heat-treatment makes fine roughness of the surface smooth and thus reduces the specific surface area. In addition, the structure state of alloy is also unified by the heat-treatment, which will be referred to afterwards. As aforesaid, the heat-treatment functions to reduce the specific surface area. This fact means that,when using the alloy powder as paint or paste material, the reduced specific surface area can prevent the occurrence of increased oil absorption, lowered oxidation resistance and other inconveniences caused in case the surface area is large. The state of alloying will be explained from the analytical results obtained by X-ray diffraction hereinafter. Fig.1 to Fig.3 illustrate comparative examples, and Fig.4 to Fig.6 illustrate data pertaining to the present invention. Fig.1 is an X-ray diffraction view of a 30 wt.% palladium-containing silver-palladium mixed powder obtained by well mixing a commercially available silver powder (0.2 micron) and palladium powder (0.1 micron) for a long period of time. It can be seen therefrom that silver and palladium each has its own peak and is in a mere mixed state. Fig.2 illustrates said mixed powder heat-treated at 200°C and for 60 minutes in nitrogen, and Fig.3 illustrates said mixed powder heat-treated at 400°C and for 60 minutes in nitrogen. It can be seen therefrom that when treated at 200°C, no change is observed in the mixed state, and that when treated at 400°C, the mixed powder is observed to be partially alloyed for the first time but still contain palladium in the form of a simple substance. Fig.4 is an X-ray diffraction view of a 30 wt.% palladium-containing silver-palladium alloy fine powder (average particle diameter 0.2 micron) prepared according to the process of the present invention. Fig.5 and Fig.6 are X-ray diffraction views of said alloy fine powder treated at 200°C and for 60 minutes in nitrogen and treated at 400°C and for 60 minutes in nitrogen respectively. It can be seen therefrom that the powder accord­ ing to the process of the present invention has already been alloyed in contrast with the case of said mixed powder. Fig.6 illustrates the case where the solids have dissolved completely, thereby causing particle growth and more unified structure. The mechanism wherein the silver-palladium alloy powder is obtained by the aforesaid process of the present invention is not always clarified, but is considered to consist in that to begin with, nuclei are formed, grown silver-palladium ultrafine particles (several tens Å) cohere and contact mutually, and said particles diffuse and fuse together for alloying. The present invention as mentioned above is advantageous in that silver or palladium powder-free alloyed silver-palladium fine powders are obtained , in that by treat­ ing said powders at industrially handy temperatures of 100 - 500°C there can be obtained fine powders whose specific surface area has been greatly reduced and whose alloying state has been more improved; in case said fine powders are used for inner electrodes in ceramic capacitors, the occurrence of delamination can be prevented completely; said particles can be suitably used also in the other electronic industries fields; and that such silver-palladium alloy fine powders can be prepared by a simple wet process and apparatus which are free from the use of hydrogen. According to the present invention, furthermore, little Ag diffuses in a dielectric substance and evaporates on firing because silver and palladium are in the alloyed state. In addition, in comparison with the fine powder obtained by means of other processes, the fine powders according to the present invention are little oxidation-weighted. Therefore, the fine powders of the present invention have lower reactivity with the dielectric substance. Due to this, the capacity of the capacitor can be expected to be levelled up. The present invention will be explained more concretely with reference to Examples hereinafter. Example 1 2425.7 g (10 times the theoretical amount) of hydrazine hydrate was added to 59.93ℓ of an acidic nitric solution (silver ion concentration: 18.69 g/ℓ, palladium ion concentration: 8.01 g/ℓ , temperature: 20°C) in 30 minutes, and said mixture was reacted for 40 minutes. The reduction-separated silver-palladium alloy fine powders were filtered by means of a natural gravity filter, were washed with 55ℓ of water, were fed with 9ℓ of acetone and filtered, and thereafter were dried at 70°C in a normal atmosphere, thereby obtaining 1600 g of silver-palladium alloy fine powders. The obtained silver-palladium alloy fine powder was a high purity fine powder that was composed of 70 % of silver and 30 % of palladium, was superior in dispersibility and had narrow particle size dis­ tribution width, an average particle diameter of 0.2 microns, a specific surface area of 19 m²/g and Na, K, Cl < 10 ppm. From its X-ray diffraction results, said silver-palladium alloy fine powder was found to indicate its peak as shown in Fig.7. This powder, that had been heat-treated at 200°C for 10 minutes in the nitrogen atmosphere, came to be more progressively alloyed and have a specific surface area of 6.00 m²/g. The heat-treated powder was formed into a cylindrical pellet, that is 5 mm in diameter and 5 mm in height, at a pressure of 1000 Kg/cm² by means of a double pushing type forming jig. Said pellet was measured twice in respect of expansion and shrinkage up to 900°C at a temperature rise rate of 20°C/min. in air by means of an expansion coeffi­ cient meter. The obtained results are shown in Fig.9 (a). It can be seen therefrom that the expansion and contraction at 350°C - 500°C, which are called into question when said pellet was used for an inner electrode in a ceramic capacitor, were scarcely observed. This powder was mixed with a glass frit, an organic binder and an organic solvent. This mixture was made into a paste. This paste was screen printed on an alumina substrate, and fired at 900°C for 10 minutes in the air. The resistivity of the obtained thick film was 3.4 × 10⁻⁵Ω · cm. Example 2 139.7 g (10 times the theoretical amount) of hydrazine hydrate was added to 1ℓ of an acidic nitric solution (silver ion concentration 80 g/ℓ , palladium ion concentration : 20 g/ℓ , temperature : 20°C) in 15 minutes, and said mixture was reacted for 30 minutes. The reduction-separated silver-palladium alloy fine powder was filtered, washed and dried in the same manner as employed in Example 1, thereby obtaining 100 g of silver-palladium alloy fine pow­ ders. The obtained powder was a high purity fine powder that was composed of 80 % of silver and 20 % of palladium and had a particle diameter of 0.2 microns, a specific surface area of 9.93 m²/g and Na, K, Cl < 10 ppm. From its X-ray diffraction results, said silver-palladium alloy fine powder was found to indicate peaks as shown in Fig.8. This powder, which had been heat-treated at 200°C, came to be more progressively alloyed and have a specific surface area of 5.65 m²/g. The heat-treated powder was measured twice in respect of expansion and shrinkage in the same manner as employed in Example 1. The obtained results are shown in Fig.9 (b). The expansion and shrinkage at 350°C - 500°C were scarcely observed. The resistivity of the thick film obtained by paste printing and then firing at 900°C for 10 minutes was 1.2 × 10⁻⁵Ω · cm. Comparative Example 1 22.74 g (3 times the theoretical amount) of hydrazine hydrate was added to 1.87ℓ of a sil­ ver-palladium ammonium complex solution (silver ion concentration : 18.69 g/ℓ palladium ion concen­ tration : 8.01 g/ℓ , temperature : 20°C, pH : 9.0), and said mixture was reduced. The reduction-separated silver-palladium fine powders were filtered by means of a natural gravity filter, were washed with 2ℓ of water, and thereafter were fed with 300 mℓ of acetone and filtered, and thereafter were dried at 70°C in a normal atmosphere, thereby obtaining 50 g of a silver-palladium fine powder. This powder was composed of 70 % of silver and 30 % of palladium. It was observed from the results of X-ray diffraction that this powder was a mere mixture of silver and palladium as shown in Fig.10, and did not display any change even after the heat-treatment at 200°C. Comparative Example 2 A silver-palladium mixed powder (palladium composition 15 wt.%) was obtained by well mixing silver powder (0.5 micron meter) and palladium powder (0.1 micron, meter) for a long period of time. This mixed powder was measured in respect of expansion and contraction in the same manner as employed in Example 1. The obtained results are shown in Fig.11. It can be seen therefrom that the expansion and shrinkage at 350 - 500°C are very violent in comparison with the alloy powder obtained according to the present in­ vention. The results obtained by measuring the expansion and contraction of a silver-palladium powder (Pd composition 30 wt.%) extracted from a commercially available silver-palladium paste are shown in Fig.12. It can be seen from the results that said expan­ sion and contraction are still very violent in compar­ ison with the alloy powder obtained according to the present invention.

Claims: 1. A process for the production of silver-palladium alloy fine powders that comprises adding hydrazine or a hydrazine compound to an acidic solution containing silver and palladium as ions and reduction-separating a silver-palladium alloy fine powder having an average particle diameter of 0.01 - 1.0 micron. 2. The process according to Claim 1 wherein said obtained alloy fine powder is heat-treated at a temperature of 100 - 500°C in an inert atmosphere or vacuum. 3. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the sum total of silver and palladium is 10 - ­ 200 g per liter of said solution. 4. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein said hydrazine or hydrazine compound added is 2 - 10 times the equivalent required for reducing silver ions and palladium ions in said solution into metals. 5. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein said solution is maintained at 10 - 100°C during reduction-separating. 6. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein as the materials for said silver and palladium there are used silver nitrate and palladium nitrate respectively, and as said acidic solution there is used an acidic nitric solution.

Inventors: HAYASHI, TAKAO, NAKAMURA, YOSHINOBU, USHIJIMA, AKIO
Applicants: MITSUI MINING & SMELTING CO., LTD.
Application year: 1987
Main classification: B22F9
IPC codes: B22F1, B22F9, H05K1