A novel nanofilm transition method is put forward to prepare highly conductive flaky silver powders. The superior electrical properties of the flaky silver powders used in printable electronics are experimentally demonstrated. The resulting silver flakes exhibit a rather low bulk resistivity of 4.6 × 10−4 Ω cm at 20 wt% of flaky silver powders.

In order to prevent corrosion of aluminium pigment in water, coated flaky aluminium powder was prepared through the sol–gel process, in which tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and tris(2-methoxyethoxy)vinylsilane (VTMOEO) were adopted as precursors. The influences of the dosage of precursors, ethylenediamine, water and ethanol, as well as the reaction temperature and reaction time on the corrosion inhibition efficiency were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, the corrosion inhibition efficiency reached 99.2% in alkaline media of pH 11. The analysis with SEM, FTIR, EDS and XPS showed that sol–gel coatings had successfully encapsulated on the surface of clear flaky aluminium powders.Research highlights► Coated flaky aluminium powder with high corrosion inhibiting efficiency in alkaline media was prepared. ► Tris(2-methoxyethoxy)vinylsilane (VTMOEO) was also used as precursor in sol-gel process because VTMOEO could improve the compatibility with resins through crosslinking. ► For preparing coated flaky aluminium powder, the optimum condition was obtained through single-factor experiments.

In order to prevent corrosion of flaky aluminium particles, flaky polyacrylic acid/aluminium composite particles were prepared using in-situ polymerization. The influences of dosage of acrylic acid, ammonium persulphate, isopropanol and water, as well as reaction temperature and reaction time, on corrosion inhibition efficiency and gloss were investigated. Maximum corrosion inhibition efficiency was 99.7% and the gloss was 88.3 Gs. Using TGA, SEM, laser particle size analysis, FTIR and XPS, polyacrylic acid was found to be coated on the surface of clear aluminium particles.

A novel nanofilm transition method is put forward to prepare highly conductive flaky silver powders. The superior electrical properties of the flaky silver powders used in printable electronics are experimentally demonstrated. The resulting silver flakes exhibit a rather low bulk resistivity of 4.6 × 10−4 Ω cm at 20 wt% of flaky silver powders.