Role of oxygen in wetting of copper nanoparticles on silicon surfaces at elevated temperature.Copper nanoparticles have been deposited on silicon surfaces by a simple galvanic displacement reaction, and rapid thermal annealing has been performed under various atmospheric conditions.  In spite of the general tendency of the agglomeration of nanoparticles to lower the surface energy at elevated temperatures, our plan-view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that the thermal oxidation of the copper nanoparticles and formation of cupric oxide (CuO) on silicon surfaces leads to wetting rather than agglomeration. 
THERM