Thermal characterization of the In–Sn–Zn eutectic alloy

Abstract

Thermal properties, including melting temperature, latent heat of melting, specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity, of a low-melting In–Sn–Zn eutectic alloy were investigated in this work. The In–Sn–Zn eutectic alloy with nominal composition 52.7In-44.9Sn-2.4Zn (at.%) was prepared by the melting of pure metals under an argon atmosphere. The conducted assessment consisted of both theoretical and experimental approaches. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used for the measurement of melting temperature and latent heat, and the obtained results were compared with the results of thermodynamic calculations. The measured melting temperature and the latent heat of melting for the In–Sn–Zn eutectic alloy are 106.5±0.1 °C and 28.3±0.1 Jg-1, respectively. Thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of the In–Sn–Zn eutectic alloy were studied by the xenon-flash method. The determined thermal conductivity of the investigated eutectic alloy at 25 °C is 42.2±3.4 Wm-1K-1. Apart from providing insight into the possibility for application of the investigated alloy as the metallic phase-change material, the obtained values of thermal properties can also be utilized as input parameters for various simulation processes such as casting and soldering.