Spherical silver powder

A spherical silver powder, comprising:

• spherical silver particles;
• and
• cavities, each of which is formed in a corresponding one of the spherical silver particles, wherein each of the cavities has a major axis of 100 to 1000 nm and a minor axis of 10 nm or more, the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis (major axis / minor axis) being 5 or more, the major axis being the length of the long side of a rectangle which has a minimum area and which circumscribes the outline of a cross-section of a corresponding one of the cavities on an image of the cross-section of the corresponding one of the silver particles exposed by polishing the surface of a resin after the silver powder is embedded in the resin, and the minor axis being the length of the narrow side of the rectangle, and
• wherein the percentage of a cross-sectional area of said cavities to a cross-sectional area of said silver particles is 10% or less on the cross-section of said silver particles.

A spherical silver powder comprising:

• spherical silver particles;
• and
• cavities, each of which is formed in a corresponding one of the spherical silver particles,
• wherein each of the cavities has a major axis of 100 to 1000 nm and a minor axis of 10 nm or more, the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis (major axis / minor axis) being 5 or more, the major axis being the length of the long side of a rectangle which has a minimum area and which circumscribes the outline of a cross-section of a corresponding one of the cavities on an image of the cross-section of the corresponding one of the silver particles exposed by polishing the surface of a resin after the silver powder is embedded in the resin, and the minor axis being the length of the narrow side of the rectangle, and
• wherein the spherical silver powder has a BET specific surface area of 0.1 to 1.5 m2/g.

A spherical silver powder comprising:

• spherical silver particles;
• and
• cavities, each of which is formed in a corresponding one of the spherical silver particles,
• wherein each of the cavities has a major axis of 100 to 1000 nm and a minor axis of 10 nm or more, the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis (major axis / minor axis) being 5 or more, the major axis being the length of the long side of a rectangle which has a minimum area and which circumscribes the outline of a cross-section of a corresponding one of the cavities on an image of the cross-section of the corresponding one of the silver particles exposed by polishing the surface of a resin after the silver powder is embedded in the resin, and the minor axis being the length of the narrow side of the rectangle, and
• wherein the shrinking percentage of the spherical silver powder reaches 10% at a temperature of not higher than 360° C. when the spherical silver powder is heated.