Optimization of surface coating condition using vapor form of alkanethiol on Cu nano powders for the application of oxidation prevention

There has been a growing interest in metal nano powders recently, and researches on Copper (Cu) nano particles are actively pursued due to its good electrical conductivity and its low prices. However, its easiness to oxidation and corrosion has delayed its research progress in Cu nano particles to be applied in inkjet printed electronics and other related research area. To overcome these problems, new surface coating method on Cu nano particles has been developed using dry process instead of conventional wet coating method. Octanethiol was used as a dry coating material because it has sulfur at the end of monolayer to chemically bond to the surface of fresh non-oxidized Cu nano particles to prevent oxidation. Octanethiol does not bond to oxidized surface of Cu nano particles. Previously, bonding between octanethiol and Cu nano particles, more specifically bonding between Cu surface and Sulfur (S) was analyzed using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). As a result, S peak was detected on the coated Cu nano particles, indicating that octanethiol chain has been successfully coated on the surface of Cu nano particles. In this study, optimization of dry coating condition was studied by varying coating time and cycles. XPS was used to analyze the composition of coated material to monitor the change in amount of S and O peaks for each condition. It was found that as the amount of Sulfur increased, the amount of Oxygen decreased and vice versa. This finding indicates that dry coating has suppressed the formation of oxygen on the surface of Cu nano powders by surrounding Cu surface with Sulfur end of octanethiol chain. Based on these experiments, the optimum coating condition for suppressing Cu oxidation was found to be 5 min and 6 cycles. For future work, the lifetime of octanethiol layer on the surface of Cu surface needs to be studied. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.I would like to thank Yeo-Kyun Yoon and Dr. Gi-ra Yi at Korea Basic Science Institute for supplying Cu nano particles and this work was supported by the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Energy (MOCIE) project number 100-300-38 and by the post BK21 program