Abstract
Conducting Ag–glass composite powders with spherical particles and a submicron size were directly prepared by spray pyrolysis from a colloidal solution containing nanosized glass powders. The mean size of the composite powders was 0.7 µm. The composite powders had good sintering characteristics at low temperatures because of the high degree of mixing between the Ag and glass components. Sintering of the composite powders occurred even at a low temperature of 400°C. Therefore, a conducting layer fired at a temperature of 400°C had low specific resistance because of its dense structure and low pore volume. The specific resistances of conducting layers formed from the composite powders were observed to increase from 2.4 to 4.7 µΩ cm when the firing temperature was decreased from 550 to 400°C.
