The present invention provides a thick-film paste for printing the front-side of a solar cell device having one or more insulating layers. The thick-film paste comprises an electrically conductive metal, and a lead-tellurium-oxide dispersed in an organic medium.

A conductive paste contains at least a conductive powder, glass frit, and an organic vehicle. The conductive powder contains a noble metal powder such as an Ag powder and a base metal powder containing Cu and/or Ni, and the base metal powder has a specific surface area of less than 0.5 m.sup.2/g. The content of the base metal powder with respect to the total amount of the conductive powder is, in ratio by weight, 0.1 to 0.3 when the base metal powder contains Cu as its main constituent, 0.1 to 0.2 when the base metal powder contains Ni as its main constituent, and 0.1 to 0.25 when the base metal powder contains a mixed powder of Cu and Ni as its main constituent.

The present invention provides a thick-film paste for printing the front-side of a solar cell device having one or more insulating layers. The thick-film paste comprises an electrically conductive metal, and a lead-tellurium-oxide dispersed in an organic medium.

A hybrid article is disclosed including a coating circumscribing the lateral surface of a hollow core having a core material and a channel disposed within the lateral surface. The coating includes about 35% to about 95% of a first metallic material, and about 5% to about 65% of a second metallic material with a lower melting point than the first metallic material. A method for forming the hybrid article is disclosed including disposing the hollow core in a die, forming a gap between the lateral surface and the die, introducing a slurry having the metallic materials into the gap, and sintering the slurry, forming the coating. A method for closing an aperture of an article is disclosed including inserting the hybrid article into the aperture, and brazing the hybrid article to the article, welding the aperture with the hybrid article serving as weld filler, or a combination thereof.

Disclosed herein as a printing method and system which includes providing a substrate and depositing an interlayer composition including a polymer selected from the group of epoxy resins, polyvinyl phenols and poly(melamine-co-formaldehyde) and an interlayer composition solvent on the substrate. The interlayer composition is cured to form cured interlayer. A conductive metal ink composition is deposited on the cured interlayer and the conductive metal ink composition is cured to form a solid metal trace on the cured interlayer.

An electrode containing a clathrate compound is disclosed that is more likely to withstand load involved in repetition of penetration and desorption of, e.g., lithium ions compared to no guest substance-encapsulating silicon clathrate compounds. An electrode active material making up the electrode according to the present invention includes a clathrate compound. The clathrate compound contains a crystal lattice and a guest substance. The guest substance is encapsulated in the crystal lattice. It is preferable that the clathrate compound be a main component of the electrode active material that makes up the electrode.

A dispersion which contains a dispersant and particles selected from among metal particles and metal oxide particles, and which is characterized in that: the dispersant has a chemical structure that is able to be bonded or adsorbed to the particles; and the dispersant contains a low-molecular-weight dispersant that has at least one peak within a molecular weight region of 31 or more but less than 1,000 in the molecular weight distribution curve in terms of polyethylene glycol as determined by gel permeation chromatography and a high-molecular-weight dispersant that has at least one peak within a molecular weight region of 1,000 or more but 40,000 or less in the above-described molecular weight distribution curve.

The present invention provides silver nano-particles that are excellent in stability and develop excellent conductivity by low-temperature calcining, a producing method for same, and a silver coating composition comprising the silver nano-particles. A method for producing silver nano-particles comprising: preparing an amine mixture liquid comprising: an aliphatic hydrocarbon monoamine (A) comprising an aliphatic hydrocarbon group and one amino group, said aliphatic hydrocarbon group having 6 or more carbon atoms in total; an aliphatic hydrocarbon monoamine (B) comprising an aliphatic hydrocarbon group and one amino group, said aliphatic hydrocarbon group having 5 or less carbon atoms in total; and an aliphatic hydrocarbon diamine (C) comprising an aliphatic hydrocarbon group and two amino groups, said aliphatic hydrocarbon group having 8 or less carbon atoms in total; mixing a silver compound and the amine mixture liquid to forma complex compound comprising the silver compound and the amines; and thermally decomposing the complex compound by heating to form silver nano-particles.

A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes: a multilayer chip in which each of dielectric layers and each of internal electrode layers are alternately stacked and are alternately exposed to two edge faces thereof; and external electrodes formed on the two edge faces; wherein: the external electrodes have a structure in which a plated layer is formed on a ground layer whose main component is a metal or an alloy, a thermal expansion coefficient of the metal being larger than that of a main ceramic component of the dielectric layer, the ground layer including a ceramic additive; outermost layers of the multilayer chip are cover layers whose main component is a main component of the dielectric layer; and thermal expansion coefficients satisfy a relationship of, the main component of the ground layer>the main component of the cover layers>the ceramic additive.

A method for manufacturing a conductive film, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a mixture liquid in which a catalytic metal is dispersed in a precursor or a precursor compound of a two-dimensional nanomaterial; and forming a catalytic metal/two-dimensional nanomaterial by irradiating the mixture liquid with ultrasonic waves to generate microbubbles, degrading the precursor compound using energy, which is generated when the microbubbles burst, to synthesize the two-dimensional nanomaterial on an outer wall of the catalytic metal, wherein the method further comprises: dispersing the catalytic metal/two-dimensional nanomaterial in a dispersion to prepare ink; and applying the ink on a substrate and performing rapid air-sintering. Thus, the two-dimensional nanomaterial is synthesized on an outer wall of a non-noble metal having high oxidative characteristics, thereby preventing oxidation of the metal from air and increasing thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity.