Phase formation sequence of high-temperature Zn–4Al–3Mg solder

Eutectic Zn–4Al–3Mg alloy is one of the potential candidates as high-temperature lead-free solders. The phase formation sequence of eutectic Zn–4Al–3Mg alloy under different solidification conditions were investigated in this work. The results show that the microstructure is strongly affected by the difference of solidification conditions. The microstructure of the furnace-cooled eutectic Zn–4Al–3Mg alloy with a lamellar eutectic structure is composed of (α-Al + η-Zn)_eutectoid, Mg₂Zn₁₁ and η-Zn three phases, while the metastable MgZn₂ phase acts as primary phase during the rapid solidification of the air-cooled and water-cooled alloy specimens, and it evolves into the Mg₂Zn₁₁ phase later through a peritectic reaction (\( {\text{MgZn}}_{ 2} + {\text{L}} \to {\text{Mg}}_{ 2} {\text{Zn}}_{ 1 1} \)). Actually, the final solidified microstructure exhibited a feature of the primary MgZn₂ phase surrounded by the Mg₂Zn₁₁ phase due to the incompleteness of the peritectic transformation. Compared with the air-cooled eutectic Zn–4Al–3Mg alloy specimen, the water-cooled eutectic Zn–4Al–3Mg alloy microstructure displayed a dendritic structure resulting from more rapid cooling rate. Furthermore, the difference between the microhardness in the eutectic Zn–4Al–3Mg alloy under various solidification conditions was mainly attributed to the high-hardness phases concluding Mg₂Zn₁₁ and MgZn₂.