Patent attributes
A melt of nickel nitrate hydrate is introduced as droplets or liquid flow into a heated reaction vessel and thermally decomposed in a gas phase at a temperature of 1200° C. or more and at an oxygen partial pressure equal to or below the equilibrium oxygen pressure of nickel-nickel oxide at that temperature to manufacture a highly crystalline fine nickel powder with an extremely narrow particle size distribution. The oxygen partial pressure during the thermal decomposition is preferably 10−2 Pa or less, and a metal other than nickel, a semimetal and/or a compound of these may be added to the nickel nitrate hydrate melt to manufacture a highly crystalline nickel alloy powder or highly crystalline nickel composite powder. The resultant powder is suited in particular to thick film pastes such as conductor pastes for manufacturing ceramic multilayer electronic components.
