Microstructural Analysis and Sintering of Precipitated Silver Chloride Films

[[abstract]]Silver chloride thin film with high specific surface area was synthesized through heterogeneous precipitation reaction by adding sodium chloride solution on top of frozen silver nitrate solution. The bottom surface (contact with frozen silver nitrate solution) morphology of the silver chloride film comprises numerous porous stick structures. The top surface (contact with sodium chloride solution) consists of equiaxed grains, and columnar grains are observed in the cross section. The effects of sintering temperature and time on the morphology and grain growth mechanisms of the film are also investigated. The grain growth mechanism belongs to an anomalous diffusion involving case I diffusion and case II diffusion. Interface diffusion occurs only at high sintering temperatures, while diffusion-controlled growth dominates at low sintering temperatures. The activation energy of the interface-controlled growth is 50 kJ/mol, while that of diffusion-controlled growth is 10 kJ/mol.[[notice]]補正完