Insights into the high-sulphur aging of sintered silver nanoparticles: An experimental and ReaxFF study

In high power electronics packaging, sintered silver nanoparticle joints suffer from thermal-humidity- electrical-chemical joint driven corrosion in extreme environments. In this paper, we conducted aging tests on sintered silver nanoparticles under high-temperature, high-humidity, and high-sulphur conditions. The results show that: (1) the sample under the dry high-sulphur conditions at a high temperature exhibited the highest degree of sulphidation; (2) Reactive force field (ReaxFF) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of sintered silver nanoparticle sulphidation revealed the sulphidation layer was formed by silver atoms upward migration. This work paves the way for further investigation on sintered silver nanoparticles corrosion considering multi-physics coupling effects. •Evolution of electrical resistance reveals the degradation of sintered silver nanoparticles in the extreme environment.•High-humidity environment generates diffusion barriers in the sintered silver nanoparticles to slow down the sulphidation.•Atomic scale sulphidation on sintered silver nanoparticles is simulation by ReaxFF.•The porous structure has no effect on the sulphidation rate, whereas the aging temperature is a dominant factor.