Abstract: A spherical silver powder which has a good dispersibility and which is capable of obtaining a good degree of sintering even if it is used for forming a paste to be fired at a low temperature of 600° C. or less to form a conductor. An aqueous solution containing a reducing agent is added to a water reaction system containing silver ions, to deposit silver particles by reduction, to produce a spherical silver powder which has a shrinkage of 5 to 15% at 500° C., a shrinkage of 10 to 20% at 600° C., a mean particle size of not greater than 5 ?m, a tap density of not less than 2 g/cm3, and a BET specific surface area of not greater than 5 m2/g.

Abstract: A spherical silver powder has a good dispersibility and is capable of obtaining a good degree of sintering even if used for forming a paste to be fired at a low temperature of 600° C. or less to form a conductor. An aqueous solution containing a reducing agent is added to a water reaction system containing silver ions, to deposit silver particles by reduction, to produce a spherical silver powder wherein a ratio (Dx/BET) of a crystallite diameter Dx (nm) to a BET specific surface area (m2/g) is in the range of from 5 to 200 and which has a crystallite diameter of not greater than 40 nm, a mean particle size of not greater than 5 ?m, a tap density of not less than 2 g/cm3, and a BET specific surface area of not greater than 5 m2/g.

Abstract: There is provided a method for a silver powder capable of decreasing the viscosity of a photosensitive paste using the silver powder and improving the film state, sensitivity and linearity of the paste even if the particle diameter of the silver powder is small. The surface of a silver powder produced by a wet reducing method is smoothed by a surface smoothing process for mechanically causing particles of the silver powder to collide with each other, and thereafter, silver agglomerates are removed by classification. The surface smoothing process is carried out by putting a dried silver powder into an apparatus, which is capable of mechanically fluidizing particles, e.g., a mixer or mill such as a cylindrical high-speed mixer, for mechanically causing the particles to collide with each other.

Abstract: There is provided a method for producing a silver powder having excellent dispersibility and capable of forming a paste which do not form suspended matters by phase separation and which is printed on a substrate to form a film having a uniform thickness. In this method, an alkali or a complexing agent is added to an aqueous silver salt containing solution to form a silver oxide containing slurry or an aqueous silver complex salt containing solution. After or before silver particles are deposited by reduction by adding a reducing agent to the silver oxide containing slurry or aqueous silver complex salt containing solution while stirring it, at least one chelating agent selected from the group consisting of compounds having an azole structure, dicarboxylic acids, hydroxy carboxylic acids and salts thereof is added to a silver power containing slurry solution as a dispersing agent.