The effect of ultrasound on the gold plating of silica nanoparticles for use in composite solders

In order to produce electronic devices that can survive harsh environments it is essential that the solder joints are very reliable and this has led to the development of composite solders. One approach to the manufacture of such solders is to disperse silica nanoparticles into it to improve their mechanical and fatigue characteristics. However, this is difficult to achieve using bare silica particles because they are not wettable in the solder matrix and so cannot be dispersed efficiently. In an attempt to alleviate this issue it has been found that if the silica nanoparticles are first plated with gold then this problem of wetting can, to some extent, be overcome. However, the particles must be completely encapsulated with gold which, using the method previously described by workers at Kings College London, was found to be difficult to accomplish. In this short communication the effect of ultrasound on the gold coverage is described. Different frequencies of ultrasound were used (20, 850 and 1176 kHz) and it was found that higher frequencies of ultrasound improved the coverage and dispersion of the gold nanoparticles over silica during the seeding step compared to simple mechanical agitation. This subsequently led to a more complete encapsulation of gold in the plating stage. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.