Characterization of silver and silver/nickel composite particles prepared by spray pyrolysis

Pure silver and silver/nickel composite particles were prepared by spray pyrolysis of aqueous solutions of AgNO3, and mixed salts of AgNO3 and Ni(NO3)2·6H2O, respectively. In the case of pure silver, reduction to metallic silver and subsequent sintering to highly spherical and dense particles took place immediately and almost simultaneously once favorable conditions for the former were imposed, irrespective of the nature of the carrier gas. For the composite particles, the high rates of reduction and sintering of the silver were still maintained, while crystallization of the silver, and the reduction and sintering of the nickel were considerably retarded, compared to the spray pyrolysis of each pure salt. Once the counterpart salt was added, the size of the composite particles increased compared to that of each pure metallic particles, but it was little affected by the furnace set temperature, the residence time and the molar ratio of the two precursor salts. Within single particles, an increase in either the temperature or the residence time caused segregation—silver in the shells and nickel in the cores—and improved the particlesʹ surface smoothness and sphericity accordingly.