No abstract

OATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible. This is an author-deposited version published in : http://oatao. a b s t r a c tSilver oxalate Ag 2 C 2 O 4 , was already proposed for soldering applications, due to the formation when it is decomposed by a heat treatment, of highly sinterable silver nanoparticles. When slowly decomposed at low temperature (125 C), the oxalate leads however to silver nanoparticles isolated from each other. As soon as these nanoparticles are formed, the magnetic susceptibility at room temperature increases from À3.14 10 À7 emu.Oe À1.g À1 (silver oxalate) up to À1.92 10 À7 emu.Oe À1.g À1 (metallic silver). At the end of the oxalate decomposition, the conventional diamagnetic behaviour of bulk silver, is observed from room temperature to 80 K. A diamagnetic-paramagnetic transition is however revealed below 80 K leading at 2 K, to silver nanoparticles with a positive magnetic susceptibility. This original behaviour, compared to the one of bulk silver, can be ascribed to the nanometric size of the metallic particles.