ZnO nanoparticles and compositional dependence of structural, thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties for eutectic SAC355 lead-free solder alloys

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reliability of mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of the eutectic Sn96Ag3.5Cu0.5 (SAC355) alloys doping with ZnO nanoparticle as a function of doping concentration. SAC355 and (SAC355)100-x(ZnO)x (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 wt%) composite solders were prepared by melt-spinning technique, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic resonance techniques (DRT) were used to examine their structural, thermal and mechanical properties after the addition of ZnO NPs, respectively. The results show that by adding ZnO NPs to the solder alloy, the grains can be refined to a certain degree, and generate some significant improvements in internal friction (Q−1), microhardness (Hv), yield stress (σ), melting temperature (Tm) and electrical resistivity (ρ) enhancement. Elastic modulus (E) fluctuation may be due to variation in particle size for β-Sn. The Debye temperature (θD) was determined by Lindemann's melting theory from the values of elastic constants. The stress exponent (n) values were in the range 1.83–3.45 which indicates grain boundary sliding and viscous glide mechanisms. According to their favorable physical properties, the addition of ZnO NPs may be useful in many future structural applications.