Materials Science & Engineering A 632 (2015) 8287

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Inuence of ZnO nano-particles addition on thermal analysis,

microstructure evolution and tensile behavior of Sn5.0 wt%
Sb0.5 wt% Cu lead-free solder alloy
A.N. Fouda a,n, E.A. Eid b
a
b

Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Suez-Canal University, 41522 Ismailia, Egypt

Basic Science Department, Higher Technological Institute, 44629 10th of Ramadan City, Egypt

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 15 December 2014
Received in revised form
22 February 2015
Accepted 25 February 2015
Available online 5 March 2015

Sn5 wt%Sb0.5 wt%Cu (plain SSC505) and Sn5 wt%Sb0.5 wt%Cu0.5 wt% ZnO (SSC-ZnO) composite
solder alloys have been studied. The variation in thermal behavior, microstructure and tensile
characteristics associated with mixing of 0.5 wt% ZnO nano-metric particles to plain SSC505 solder
were investigated. A slight increment in the melting temperature [Tm 0.89 1C] was recorded using
differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) after addition of ZnO. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis conrmed
the existence of -Sn, SbSn and Cu6Sn5 intermetallic compounds (IMCs) beside some of ZnO planes in
SSC-ZnO composite solder. Field emission scanning electronic microscope (FE-SEM) investigation of SSCZnO composite solder revealed a homogenous uniform distribution, size renement of IMCs and -Sn
grains. Addition of ZnO nano-metric particles into the plain SSC505 enhanced the yield stress YS by
 12% and improved the ultimate tensile strength UTS by  13%. In addition, adding ZnO nano-metric
particles was found to be effective for reducing ductility by  43% of the plain solder due to the
renement of -Sn grains within SSC-ZnO composite solder.
& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Functional alloys
Elastic properties
Nano-crystalline structure
Composite solder
Microstructure

1. Introduction
Sn based alloys are promising for advance electronics components connections as a lead-free composite solder [1]. Recently,
high-temperature solders have been widely used in various types
of applications like assembling optoelectronic components, automobile circuit boards, circuit modules for step soldering, etc. [2].
Eutectic composition of goldtin (Au20 wt% Sn) is the best solder
alloy for most applications in optoelectronic packaging, because of
its high creep resistance, wettability and good reliability [3,4].
Certainly, high soldering temperatures could damage the properties of optical bers and sensitive optoelectronics such as lasers,
light emitting devices, photodetectors, or waveguide devices [2,5].
To solve this problem, great effort has been made to develop a new
generation of solders with low melting point, reasonable cost, high
dimension stability and supporting solder joints performance with
increasing miniaturization and more input/output terminals [6].
Sn5 wt% Sb solder is one of great potential alternative materials,
it has a stable microstructure, good mechanical properties, high

Corresponding author. Tel.: 20 1227507971.

E-mail addresses: alynabieh@yahoo.com (A.N. Fouda),
dr_eid_hti@yahoo.com (E.A. Eid).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2015.02.070
0921-5093/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

creep and corrosion resistance and good solderability (contact

angle of about 431) [7,8]. To enhance the performance of SnSb
solders, the incorporation of a third material with Sn-based matrix
as a secondary phase is one of the conventional approaches [9,10].
Micro/nano size metallic, intermetallic and oxide particles are
widely used in the reinforcement of composite materials [11].
Nano-size oxides, intermetallic, or ceramic particles are used to
reinforce the composite solders of SnAg and SnAgCu (SAC).
Many researchers investigated the effect of adding nanoparticles
to solder alloys. Babaghorbani et al. [12] added SnO2 nanopowders
to Sn93.5Ag lead-free solder alloy. Taso and Chang [4] mixed TiO2
nano-size particles to Sn3.5Ag0.25Cu solder. They discussed the
effect of adding nanoparticles on the thermal characteristics of
solder solidication and renement of the grain size. Nai et al.
reported an improvement in the mechanical properties of the
carbon nano-tubes/composite solders [11]. Moreover, some efforts
have been made to reinforce Sn3.5Ag solder with nanopowders
of ZrO2, SiC, Cu, Co, Ni, Ag, and intermetallic particles (Cu6Sn5,
Ni3Sn4) using different processing methods [6,1215]. However,
the secondary phase must be sufciently ne, bond well, stable,
has a higher ow resistance than the alloy matrix, un-deformable
and resist the fracture of solder joint [1618].
The literature survey revealed that no studies have been
reported so far on lead-free SSC505 solder joints containing

A.N. Fouda, E.A. Eid / Materials Science & Engineering A 632 (2015) 8287

2. Experimental procedure
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-sized particles was selected as a reinforcement oxide because of its capability to form physical bond
with metallic matrix [19]. Additionally, the main advantages of
nano-sized ZnO particles is: (i) density of (5.67 g/cm3) which is
nearly close to density of Sn5 wt%Sb (7.530 g/cm3) (ii) high
hardness [5 GPa], [19] (iii) chemical stability and (iv) low cost
when compared to other nanoparticles such as TiO2, Y2O3, SiC and
ZrO2. Sn5.0 wt%Sb0.5 wt%Cu (plain SSC505) solder alloy was
prepared by melting elements of Sn, Sb and Cu ingots of 99.99%
purity. The process of melting was carried out in air at 600 1C for
3 h. The SSC-ZnO composite solder was synthesized by mixing and
stirring ZnO nano-powder within SSC505 molten alloy. In order to
get a homogeneous composition, the alloy was re-melted three
times to produce rod-like specimen with a diameter of about
10 mm. A stainless steel mold was used for casting, then left to
cool slowly. The two solder alloys in the form of rods were cold
drawn into a wire of 0.8 mm diameter. A part of each alloy was
rolled into a sheet of 0.5 mm thick for microstructure investigations. Specimens with a gauge length of 50 mm were pulled for
tensile testing. Prior to the tensile testing, all specimens were heat
treated at a temperature of 150 1C for 2 h in air. Then, they were
cooled slowly to room temperature in order to stabilize the
microstructure and remove the residual defects which are produced during the cooled drawn process. The densities () of plain
and composite solders were determined using Archimedes principle. Polished samples taken from various sections of the solidied rods were weighted in air and after immersed in distilled
water using an electronic balance (A&D HM-202) with an accuracy
of 70.0001 g.
For metallographic observations, as-solidied specimens were
prepared initially by mounting in cold epoxy. They were neatly
polished using 3 m and 1 m alumina powder which suspended
in distilled water as a lubricant. Final polishing to near mirror-like
surface was achieved using 0.3 m diamond paste. The as-polished
samples were chemically etched in a solution of 80% glycerin, 10%
nitric acid and 10% acetic acid for 10 s. The surface morphology of
the samples were characterized by using eld emission scanning
electron microscopy (FE-SEM) SU8000 series equipped with energy
dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). X-ray diffractometer (Philips diffractometer (40 kV)) with Cu-K radiation ( 0.15406 nm) was
used for XRD measurements. The melting temperature and heat of
fusion were analyzed using a differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC-Shimadzu DSC-50). Tensile testing was performed by straining
each specimen to fracture under a strain rate of 4.7  10  3 s  1 and
testing temperature of 27 1C.

238.27 1C respectively. This result is agree with other previous

reports on SAC composite solders [4,20,21]. The slight increase in
melting point of the SSC-ZnO composite solder can be attributed
to the effect of the nano-sized ZnO particles on the rate of
solidication. Such particles may serve as retardation sites for
the solidication process of the IMCs [22].
Additionally, the endothermic peak of DSC curve in Fig. 1 is
initiated at solidus temperature Ts and ended at liquidus temperature TL that is estimated by using the intersection point between
the horizontal tangent of baseline and the tangent line for each
side of endothermic peak. The features of endothermic peak of
synthesized solder alloys are summarized in Table 1. For plain
SSC505 and composite solders, there is a signicant difference
between solidus temperatures (Ts 2.11 1C) and a negligible
difference in liquidus temperatures (TL 0.13 1C). For any alloy
to be worthwhile as a solder for electronics industry, it must
possess certain specic quantities like melting range or pasty
range which is an essential parameter to estimate the time
required for nishing the soldering process. The pasty range of
plain and composite solder alloys are 23.88 and 21.90 1C respectively. The solidus and liquidus temperatures of the synthesized
solder alloys are lower than Sn5 wt% Sb binary solder alloy. On
the other hand, Sn5 wt% Sb has the smallest pasty range of
10.0 1C and a higher melting temperature of 246 1C that provides a
useful compromise between them. [9,23]
The heat of fusion (H) plays an important role in packaging
technology. The calculated heat of fusion for both solder alloys are
tabulated in Table 1. The heat of fusion for plain is higher than
composite solder alloy [HSSC505  HSSC-ZnO 36.56 J/g]. The consumed energy for its melting process is lower than Sn5 wt% Sb
(HSn5Sb 140.5 J/g) by  37% [9]. Therefore, SSC-ZnO composite
solder alloy is considered as a promising solder for saving energy.
3.2. Microstructure evolution
3.2.1. XRD analysis
Representative x-ray diffraction of plain solder and composite
solder are shown in Fig. 2a and b. The diffraction pattern exhibited
sharp peaks, which were attributed to the crystalline nature of the

SSC-ZnO

HEAT FLOW (mW)

nano-metric ZnO particles. Therefore, the present work is devoted

for investigating the effect of adding nano-metric ZnO particles on
thermal, microstructure and tensile behavior of Sn5 wt% Sb
0.5 wt% Cu (SSC505) lead free solder.

83

238.27 C
SSC505

237.38 C

100

200

300

400

500

TEMPERATURE (C)
3. Results and discussion

Fig. 1. DSC curves of (a) SSC505 and (b) SSC-ZnO composite solder alloys.

3.1. Thermal behavior

For the soldering process, the melting temperature of solder is
a crucial parameter. Because, it is the main factor in deciding the
process temperature. The melting points of the prepared plain and
composite solders were accurately determined by DSC thermograms. Fig. 1(a and b) shows the endothermic peak of the solder
temperature during the heating rate of 5 1C/min. The melting
temperatures of the plain and composite solders are 237.38 and

Table 1
Comparison of melting temperatures (Tm), solidus temperature (Ts), liquidus
temperature (TL), pasty range (T) and heat of fusion (H) for various solder alloys.
Material Tm (1C) Ts (1C)

TL (1C)

T TL-TS (1C) H (kJ/kg) Reference

Sn5Sb
SSC505
SSC-ZnO

249
247.33
247.46

9.0
23.88
21.90

246
237.38
238.27

240
223.45
225.56

141
125.52
88.96

El-Dally [9]
This study
This study

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A.N. Fouda, E.A. Eid / Materials Science & Engineering A 632 (2015) 8287

INTENSITY (arb.units)

INTENSITY (arb.units)

samples. The qualitative analysis of the peaks reects the existence

of body center tetragonal of -Sn-rich phase. The diffraction planes
(101), (110), (021), and (202) at angles of (2 29.31, 41.91, 42.31
and 60.51) respectively, conrm the existence of cubic SbSn IMC.
Regarding to Fig. 2b, it consists of the same phases which exist in
the plain solder (Fig. 2a). On the other hand, the emergence of ZnO
(101) and (002) peaks at angles of 32.71 and 34.31 is an evidence of
ZnO nanoparticles dispersion within -Sn matrix. Moreover, disappearance of some ZnO peaks can be attributed to interfere of its
peaks with the peaks of -Sn phases. However, the slow scan
speed (0.02 deg/s) conducted on the plain and composite solders
revealed several peaks at angles of (2 30.361, 42.881, 53.651,
57.581, 62.331 and 79.711) that corresponds to Cu6Sn5 IMC. The
small peaks of Cu6Sn5 IMC assigned to the low volume fraction of
the copper in the solder matrix. Fig. 3, shows a comparison
between diffraction peaks (200) and (101) of -Sn for plain and
composite solder. One can observe that, the diffraction lines are

30

40

50

60

70

80

2 (degree)

Intensity (arb.unt)

Fig. 2. XRD proles of (a) SSC505 solder and (b) SSC-ZnO composite solder alloys.

30.2 30.4 30.6 30.8

31

31.2 31.4 31.6 31.8

32

32.2 32.4 32.6

2 (degree)
SSC505

SSC-ZnO

Fig. 3. Comparison between diffraction peaks of (200) and (101) of -Sn for plain
and composite solders.

slightly shifted towards lower angles, indicating the increase of

strain with addition of ZnO nano-metric particles [24,25].
It is well known that, the broadening of XRD peaks of an alloy is
caused not only by the small grain size but also due to the lattice
micro-deformations of the alloy [15]. The crystallite size d and an
approximate upper limit of the lattice strain can be evaluated by
XRD peaks analysis according to the WilliamsonHall formula [25]:

cos

k
2 sin
d

where is the peak width at half maximum intensity (FWHM) in

radian of the main peaks, is the Bragg angle, k is the Scherrer
constant (k0.9), is the average of lattice strain, and is the X-ray
wavelength ( 0.15406 nm). When cos was plotted against sin
using the main peaks of -Sn, a straight line is obtained with the
slope of 2 and the intercept as (k/d). Results of linear tting of
extracting data are summarized in Table 2. The crystallite size of Snbased supersaturated solid solution was calculated to be 116 and
99 nm for the plain and composite solders, respectively. From
Table 2, one can observe that the average lattice strain of -Sn
phase for SSC-ZnO composite solder was higher than plain solder by
550%. The increment in the strain can be attributed to the
generation of additional impurity defects during the preparation of
SSC-ZnO composite solder [26]. Moreover, the micro-strain is accompanied by dislocation which make broadening in XRD peaks [24].
3.2.2. Metallographic observations
Results of microstructural characteristics of the plain and
composite solders are discussed in terms of: (i) grain size,
morphology, and homogenous distribution, (ii) the presence,
distribution and morphology of second phase particles, and
(iii) percentage of porosity, cracks and voids. Fig. 4 shows two
optical images (OM) with the same power of magnication for the
as-cast plain and composite solders that solidied at cooling rate
of 2 1C/min. Results revealed that the plain solder was composed
of larger non-equiaxed grains, non-uniform solidication microstructure; the large dark islands are rich-Sn grains with grain size
in the range of 100140 m. The bright region between Sn grains
actually consists of mixture of lamellar phases of Sn matrix phase
(dark phase) and the circular bright dot phase termed as SnSb IMC.
Moreover, homogenous distribution and narrower dendrites are
shown in Fig. 4b. The ner rich-Sn grains within composite solder
reveal near-equiaxed grains with average grain size in the range of
9050 m approximately. The decrease of average grain size of
-Sn phase after adding 0.5 wt% Zinc nano-metric particles can be
attributed to its pinning action on grain boundaries and by the
second phases resulting in limited grain growth [18]. In Fig. 4b, the
-Sn phase is not only composed of pure Sn crystals but rather
contain several of tiny intermetallic particles that scattered
throughout Sn matrix. It was revealed from the transmission
electron microscopy (TEM) image of ZnO nano-powder (see
Fig. 5) that the average grain size of ZnO nanoparticles is around
66 nm. Furthermore, with higher magnication of eld emission
scanning electronic microscope (FE-SEM), the precipitated particles like as platelets or scallop morphology of the Cu6Sn5 IMC were
observed in both solders (see Fig. 6a and b).
The precipitation of IMCs within -Sn matrix is conrmed by
utilizing energy dispersion X-ray (EDX) analysis, the eutectic areas
were found to contain Zn, O, Cu, Sb and Sn elements in composite
solder. Thus, it can be concluded that the network eutectic areas
are Cu6Sn5 and SbSn beside ZnO particles as shown in Fig. 6ac.
Stoichiometric analysis of EDX data implies the existence of Sn, Sb
and Cu atoms and termed IMCs according to the atomic ratio of
each element in compound [see Table 3]. An identied decrease in
size of SbSn, Cu6Sn5 IMCs was conrmed by FE-SEM images
(see Fig. 5a and b). This was assigned to ZnO nanoparticles which

A.N. Fouda, E.A. Eid / Materials Science & Engineering A 632 (2015) 8287

85

Table 2
The average crystallite size (d) and lattice strain () for plain SSC505 solder, SSC-ZnO composite solder and SbSn, Cu6Sn5 IMCs.
-Sn (Matrix)

SbSn (IMC)

SSC505 (R2 0.042)

d (nm)
116

 10  5
10

SSC-ZnO (R2 0.061)

d (nm)
99

 10  5
55

Cu6Sn5 (IMC)

SSC505 (R2 0.3337)

d (nm)
693

 10  5
300

SSC-ZnO (R2 0.6108)

d (nm)
116

 10  5
565

SSC505 (R2 0.4255)

d (nm)
754

 10  5
346

SSC-ZnO (R2 0.7218)

d (nm)
205

 10  5
588

Cu 6Sn 5
SbSn
-Sn

-Sn
Cu 6Sn 5
SbSn

Fig. 4. Optical images showing the grains of (a) SSC505 solder and (b) SSC-ZnO
composite solder alloys.

Fig. 5. TEM image of ZnO nano-powder.

incorporated into the solder matrix. According to the adsorption

theory, increasing the adsorption of elements could decrease the
surface energy and/or decrease the growth of IMCs size [14]. For
the composite solder, the micro-size of SbSn and Cu6Sn5 IMCs are
larger than the size of the ZnO nano-metric particles. Therefore,
the incorporation of active surface ZnO nano-metric particles

Fig. 6. FE-SEM micrographs showing the grains of (a) SSC505 solder and (b) SSCZnO composite solder alloys.

renes the size of IMCs. Similar behavior was reported by other

groups [20,22].
The Curve of EDX analyses of a selected area in Fig. 7b shows that,
the Cu6Sn5 IMC contain 7.01 at% of Sb element [see Table 3]. The
existence of antimony atoms inside the Cu6Sn5 grain conrms that
tinantimony intermetallic compound might be the nucleating agent
acting as a heterogeneous nucleation of Cu6Sn5 grains. The proposed
mechanism for the effect of Sb on IMC formation can be summarized
as follows; because Sb has higher afnity to the constituent element
of Sn in SnCuSb ternary system, it can reduce the activity of Sn at
the SnCu interface by forming SnSb compound, making a decrease
in driving force for CuSn IMC formation [27]. SnSb particles may be
initially formed and nely dispersed in the molten solder, and then
some of them precipitate and become the heterogeneous nucleation
sites of Cu6Sn5 IMC. According to the theory of heterogeneous
nucleation, the Cu6Sn5 phase prefers to nucleate on the SnSb surface
in order to reduce the thermodynamic barrier [28]. The increase in
nucleation probability of Cu6Sn5 grains consequently lends to the
renement of the grains. As a result, the small and uniform grains in
the composite solder slow down the ripening rate, and the renement effect is achieved.
3.3. Density measurement
The density measurements were conducted on the solidied
plain and composite solders. In Table 4, all the density values were
very close which is predicted because of the slight difference in
density between Sn and ZnO. The porosity measurement was

86

A.N. Fouda, E.A. Eid / Materials Science & Engineering A 632 (2015) 8287

Table 3
Energy dispersive R-Ray (EDX) analysis.
Zone

Composition

Phase identication

Sn

(See Fig. 6a)

(See Fig. 6b)
(See Fig. 6c)

Sb

Cu

Zn

O2

Wt%

At%

Wt%

At%

Wt%

At%

Wt%

At%

At%

Wt%

65.43
72.76
83.59

66.01
61.61
40.53

34.57
3.68
8.75

33.99
7.01
6.61

23.56
2.06

27.37
2.98

3.51

4.94

3.60

13.08

Table 4
Results of density and porosity.

SbSn

Sn

SnSb
Cu6Sn5
Eutectic

Sn

Material

Density (g/cm3)a

Porosity (g/cm3)

Reference

Sn5 wt% Sb
SSC505
SSC-ZnO

7.526 7 0.005
7.553 7 0.006
7.5337 0.006

0.50
0.75 7 0.17
0.87 7 0.20

El-Bahay [23]
This study
This study

Sn Sb

Sb

Sn

SSC-ZnO
SSC505

80

10

Energy (keV)

Sn

Cu6Sn 5

STRESS (MPa)

100

Sn Sb

60
40
20
0
0.00

Room temperature
.
-4 -1
=4.710 s

0.05

0.15

0.20

STRAIN

Sn
B

Fig. 8. Stressstrain curves showing the effect of adding 0.5 wt% ZnO nanoparticles
to SSC505 plain solder alloy.

A
Cu

0.10

Sb Sn
Sn

Cu

theoretically calculated and tabulated in Table 4 [12,24]. The value

of porosity implied that the higher percentage of pores exists in
the case of SSC-ZnO composite solder.

Cu

3.4. Strengthening effect

0

10

Energy (keV)

Sn

Sn
Sb
Sn

O2
Cu

Zn
Cu

Sn

10

Energy (keV)
Fig. 7. High-magnication FE-SEM micrographs with corresponding EDX of intermetallic compound of (a) SbSn (b) Cu6Sn5 (c) eutectic region in SSC-ZnO composite
solder.

Fig. 8 shows the typical tensile stressstrain curves of plain

and composite solders stretched with constant strain rate of
7.4  10  3 s  1 at room temperature (27 1C). The stressstrain
curves exhibited plateau shaped with steady stable ow stress of
the two solder alloys. It was found to be strongly dependent on
alloy composition of the tested material. Furthermore, steady state
ow of composite solder was higher than plain solder by  12%.
This observation can be explained as; during plastic deformation
the solder alloy suffers from simultaneous work hardening and
dynamic recovery [17]. They have contrary inuences on the
mechanical deformation of the alloy. Hence the steady stable
stresses seem to be represented equal combination effects. Additionally, existence of the ZnO nanoparticles increases dislocation
densities because of their restricting effect for the motion of
dislocation, besides the dispersion hardening mechanism of the
IMCs. Therefore, during deformation, the movement of generated
dislocations becomes mixed and tangled. It is then more difcult for
other dislocations to glide through the material, especially at lower
testing temperatures leading to increase the ow stresses [20].
The average values of Young modulus E, ultimate tensile
strength UTS, yield stress YS, fracture stress f and ductility of

A.N. Fouda, E.A. Eid / Materials Science & Engineering A 632 (2015) 8287

Table 5
Tensile results at room temperature and strain rate of 4.7  10  3 s  1.
Material

E (GPa)

UTS (MPa)

YS (MPa)

f (MPa)

f %

Reference

Sn5 wt% Sbn

SSC505
SSC-ZnO

44.5
43.4
60.3

35.50
77.48
86.35

25.70
64.68
73.10

42.59
72.80

22
17.0
9.7

El-daly [9]
This study
This study

87

measurements, an improvement in UTS and YS were established.

However, the ductility of SSC-ZnO composite solder was decreased. The variation in tensile properties is attributed to ZnO
pinning effect which obstructed dislocations and migration of
grain boundaries.
Reference

the synthesized solder alloys were tabulated in Table 5. Addition of

0.5 wt% ZnO nano-powders has a signicant effect on the tensile
parameters. Detectable increments in E by 52%, UTS by 11% and in
YS by 13% were recorded. However, the ductility of SSC-ZnO
composite solder was less than plain solder by 43%. Improvement
in the tensile parameters was achieved because of presence of ZnO
nanopowders as reinforcement agent. The nano-sized particles are
dispersed uniformly and homogeneously distributed in Sn matrix
which provide high barrier for grain boundary sliding and dislocation movement. The reinforcement nanoparticles play two
different roles. They may strengthen the alloy matrix and enhance
the formation of large dislocation pile-ups at grain boundaries.
Simultaneously, the higher friction of nanoparticles generates
microcracks nucleation at the interface between Sn matrix and
IMCs which speed up the failure process [29,30]. So, ductility was
decreased because of a large amount of microporosity throughout
grain boundaries and crack nucleation sites in the form of hard
and brittle ZnO nanopowders [20,24,31].
Eventually, the inuence of the nano-metric size particles can
be summarized in: (i) pinning grain boundaries and thus impeding
sliding of the grain boundaries, (ii) the increase of dislocation
densities and obstacles to restrict the motion of dislocation and
(iii) the dispersion hardening mechanism of the IMCs and ZnO
nanopowders [30,32].

[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]

[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]

4. Conclusion
ZnO nano-sized particles were mechanically mixed with the
molten of SSC505 at 600 1C during the fabrication of SSC-ZnO
composite solder. Thermal behavior, microstructure and mechanical characteristics were discussed. The melting point of SSC505
solder is slightly increased after the addition of ZnO nanoparticles.
X-ray diffraction analysis of SSC-ZnO conrms the existence of
SbSn, Cu6Sn5 IMCs and ZnO. The microstructure observations
revealed ner IMCs due to active surface area of ZnO nanoparticles
that supports the strong adsorption effect. According to the tensile

[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]

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