Nickel-rhenium alloy powder and conductor paste containing the same

Abstract

A nickel-rhenium alloy powder comprising nickel as a main component, 0.1 to 10% by weight of rhenium, and having an average particle size of 0.05 to 1.0 μm is provided. The nickel-rhenium alloy powder has a surface oxide film containing a nickel oxide and a rhenium oxide, and the amount of oxygen in the surface oxide film is 0.1 to 3.0% by weight relative to the total weight of the powder. The nickel-rhenium alloy powder is suitable, in particular, for forming internal electrode layers of a multilayer ceramic electronic component. The obtained powder is homogeneously mixed and dispersed in an organic vehicle, together with other additives as needed, to prepare a conductor paste. The surface oxide film allows bringing the sintering shrinkage behavior of electrode layers and ceramic layers closer to each other when the nickel-rhenium alloy powder is used, in particular, for forming internal electrodes of a multilayer ceramic electronic component. Moreover, there occurs no electrode spheroidizing caused by oversintering. and thus thinner, dense internal electrodes having excellent continuity can be formed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.