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→Precious Metal Firing Preparations
While in the past mostly glass ware and ceramics (table china) were coated for decorative purposes with gold or platinum, precious metals have since quite a few years been applied to non-metallic substrates such as ceramics, glass or plastics to make their surfaces electrically conductive. To coat these surfaces, fine powders of the precious metal are dispersed in a carrier, containing a paint basis and organic solvents. Such preparations can be applied by screen or tampon printing, by spraying, immersion or with a paint brush.
<figure id="fig:Solar cell with print pattern of ARGONOR N920">
[[File:Solar cell with print pattern of ARGONOR N920.jpg|right|thumb|Figure 2: Solar cell with print pattern of ARGONOR N920]]
</figure>
===Precious Metal Firing Preparations===
The firing preparations in liquid or paste form are widely used in electrical and electronic engineering and especially in the thick-film technology (<xr id="tab:Liquid Silver Preparations for Firing Application (ARGONOR)"/><!--(Table 8.2)-->). The precious metal filler material is mostly pure silver because of its high electrical conductivity. During firing in an oxidizing atmosphere at temperatures between 400 and 850°C a well adhering and highly conductive surface layer is formed.
When utilizing screen printing techniques any shapes of conductive patterns can be created (<xr id="fig:Solar cell with print pattern of ARGONOR N920"/><!--(Fig. 8.2)-->) resulting in conductive paths with good electrical properties and high temperature stability.
