The Effect of Al Micro-Alloying on Corrosion and Thermal Properties of Sn-Zn Alloy

Electrochemical corrosion behavior of Sn–Zn solder alloys in 6 M potassium hydroxide solution was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization technique, aiming to investigate the role of Al additions. The effect of micro-alloying Al on the thermal properties was also studied by using DSC. The results reveal that the presence of Al content leads to increasing in corrosion potential yet reducing the corrosion current density and passivation current density, simultaneously. XRD analysis reveals the failure to produce new compound with Zn, limits the effect of adding Al towards the corrosion performance. Yet, significant improvement on thermal properties were seen, especially on the melting temperature and pasty range without modifying the eutectic melting behavior.