Aggregation in thin-film silver: Induced by chlorine and inhibited by alloying with two dopants

Abstract The Ag aggregation mechanism triggered by chlorine (Cl) is discussed. The frontier orbital theory by K. Fukui is applied in order to determine the growing point in the silver (Ag) cluster. Ag in the thin-film silver would grow to Ag n Cl and stack, triggered by Cl from the outside according to the mechanism described. This would lead to an aggregate with a high Ag density. It is suggested that this would be the generating mechanism of the silver-gray aggregate consisting mostly of Ag, which is generated by exposing it to Cl. Two tactics in order to prevent restrain aggregation induced by Cl according to the mechanism are proposed. Tactic 1 is a restraining of structure change to a plane in the process of Ag 6 Cl + Ag → Ag 7 Cl. Tactic 2 is the trapping of Cl before it generates a bond to Ag. The ability of the two combined dopants with the abilities of tactics 1 and 2, such as in an Ag alloy including palladium and copper (APC), and including neodymium and gold (ANA) is expected to be very high. The aggregation resistance of an Ag alloy including two dopants is evaluated by a salt water immersion test. The APC and ANA demonstrated a very high resistance to Cl, because of the combination of the dopants working with tactic 1 (Pd, Au) and tactic 2 (Cu, Nd). The multilayer sputter coating with an ANA layer demonstrated a very interesting profile where the light transmittance and the electrical sheet resistance are almost the same as the multilayer sputter coating with a pure Ag. The multilayer sputter coating with AIS also demonstrates a very interesting profile, where the light transmittance is higher than the multilayer sputter coating with a pure Ag.