Reactive wetting of tin/steel and tin/aluminum at 350-450 °C

Wetting of Sn/Al and Sn/low carbon steel systems, for the typical dissolutive and reactive wetting systems, were studied at 350-450 degrees C under high vacuum. In Sn/Al system, the dissolution of Al into Sn cannot decrease the liquid/solid interface tension but break the bonding between oxide film and substrate, and then improve wettability. In Sn/low carbon steel system, the wetting behavior has two stages (non-linear and linear stages), and can be described by the well-established RPC model. The wetting activation energies are 24.6 kJ/mol and 26.1 kJ/mol for these two stages, respectively, which are corresponding to the dissolution-precipitation mechanism at interface, i.e., the dissolution of Fe and the precipitation of FeSn2. The precursor film is a typical characteristic for the wetting of metal/metal reactive system, and can be explained by the subcutaneous infiltration mechanism (for the situation that the substrate was covered with oxide film). (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.