676 Vol.34 No.3 WANG Qingmeng et al: Microstructures and Thermal Properties of Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga...

DOI https: //doi. org/10.1007/s11595-019-2103-1

Microstructures and Thermal Properties of Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga

Alloys as Heat Transfer and Heat Storage Materials

WANG Qingmeng1, CHENG Xiaomin1*, LI Yuanyuan1, YU Guoming2, LIU Zhi2

(1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; 2. School of Mechanical and
Electrical Engineering, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang 438000, China)

Abstract: Low melting point alloy is a potential high-temperature heat transfer medium because of
the high thermal conductivity, low solidus temperature and wide range of use temperature. Consequently, we
investigated the possibility of using Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga alloys as heat storage and heat transfer material. Moreover,
we investigated the microstructure and phase compositions by electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) and
X-ray diffusion (XRD). Results show that the new structures and phases are formed in the alloy matrix
with Ga additions, which lead to the improvement of the thermal properties. An extensive thermophysical
characterization of the Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga alloys has been performed by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)
analysis. The addition of Ga lowers the peak temperature and increases the heat capacity of the alloys. The
thermal expansion of the test alloys increases with increasing temperature and the densities decreases with Ga
additions. As the density, specific heat capacity and thermal diffusivity change with temperature and physical
state, the thermal conductivity of the alloys first decreases and then increases. These results demonstrate the
feasibility of using Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga alloys as the high-temperature heat transfer fluid.
Key words: heat transfer fluid; microstructure; Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga alloys; thermal properties

1 Introduction generate turbine power by generating high-temperature

Energy is the cornerstone of human existence and
development. With the rapid development of the world
economy, the population has dramatically increased
and the demand for energy has been increasing[1]. To
this end, researchers have done a great deal of work in
this area[2-7], including changing the structure of energy
use devices to improve the energy efficiency of raw
materials and finding new sources of energy such as
solar energy and nuclear energy instead of traditional
fossil fuels. Either way, the transfer of energy is essen-
tial. For example, in a solar thermal power generation
system, heat absorbed from a concentrating solar power
(CSP) needs to be transferred to a steam generator to
© Wuhan University of Technology and Springer-Verlag GmbH
Germany, Part of Springer Nature 2019
(Received: May 18, 2018; Accepted: Jan. 17, 2019)
WANG Qingmeng (王青萌): E-mail: wangqingmeng@whut.
edu.cn
*Corresponding author: CHENG Xiaomin(程晓敏): Prof.; Ph
D; E-mail: Chengxm@whut.edu.cn
Funded by National Key Technology Research & Development
Program of China (No. 2012BAA05B05), Key Technology
Research & Development Program of Hubei (No. 2015BAA111),
Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.WUT:
2017Ⅱ23GX)
and high-pressure steam[8,9]. In the advanced nuclear
energy system, it also needs the heat transfer medium
to transfer the heat from the nuclear reactor[10,11]. Not
only that, in the chemical industry, transportation, mi-
croelectronics and other industries, the heat transfer
is also widespread, such as the use of industrial waste
heat, chip cooling technology, in which heat transfer
medium plays a very important role[12-17].
Due to the use of narrow temperature, low ther-
mal conductivity and other defects limit the conven-
tional heat transfer medium used in the high tempera-
ture and high efficiency heat transfer system. Metal and
alloys are promising as the potential choice for heat
transfer materials for next generation thermal power
generation systems because of its wide range of oper-
ating temperatures, lower phase change temperatures,
high heat storage density, high thermal conductivity
and low vapor pressure. For instance, C E Andraka et
al[18] have identified and characterized a metallic-based
PCM (Ca–Si and Cu–Mg–Si) for dish Stirling storage
systems. The Cu–Mg–Si PCM has a very high heat of
melting, minimizing the volume and mass of a 6-hour
storage system, and presents a reasonable cost that
can lead to a cost-effective storage system. P Blan-
co-Rodríguez et al[19] determined the thermophysical
characterization of the Mg-51%Zn eutectic alloy. The
Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed. www.jwutms.net June 2019
main advantages of the Mg–51%Zn are its thermal
diffusivity, heat capacity and energy density compared
to molten salts. Mg–Bi alloy as a latent heat energy
storage material for CSP applications are reported by D
Fang et al[20]. They found that the higher proportion of
Mg + Mg3Bi2 eutectic phases in alloy, the higher value
of melting enthalpy. Lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE;
45% Pb, 55% Bi) melts at 125 ℃ and does not boil
until 1 670 ℃, making it an ideal heat-transfer medium
for application in thermal solar power[21]. However, it
has attracted many experts and scholars to pay attention
to the microstructure and mechanical properties of
alloys. And further research is needed on the thermal
properties of alloys under different conditions. Alloys
composed of Sn, Bi, Zn and Ga have low melting
point, high boiling point and good thermal conductivi-
ty. Hence, they can be used as heat transfer fluid at high
temperature conditions.
This work systematically studied the thermal
properties and microstructure of the newly developed
(Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloys. The relationship between
the microstructures and the thermal properties of the
test alloys and the thermal properties of different state
will also be discussed. This investigation aims to pro-
vide an important basis for developing metallic materi-
als with low melting temperature and high thermal con-
ductivity as high temperature heat transfer and storage
materials.
2 Experimental
2.1 Materials and preparation
Table 1 The compositions of RJ-2 flux
Composition/wt%
Sample
MgCl2 KCl NaCl CaCl CaF2
RJ-2 flux 43-55 20-30 20-30 3-5 10-15
Coating agent 65-74 10-20 15 3-5 4-7
In this work, (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloys were
prepared from Sn, Zn, Bi, Ga metals with the purity
of 99.99%. The alloy compositions are designed and
weighed in proportion. Each designed alloy was melted
in a low power melting furnace at 450 ℃. The liquid
surface of the alloy was protected by RJ-2 flux cover
agent. The composition of the RJ-2 covering agent is
shown in Table 1. During the experiment, high purity
argon (99.999%) protection was introduced to prevent
the compositional changes caused by the liquid surface
oxidation of the alloy. The melted samples were poured
677
into the iron mold (φ 30×100 mm).
2.2 Analysis method
Phase compositions of the alloys were inves-
tigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD, D8 ADVANCE)
and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF, AXIOS).
The microstructure of the alloys was analyzed by elec-
tron probe micro-analysis (EPMA, JXA-8230), and
alloy compositions were studied by energy dispersive
spectrometer (EDS, INCAX-ACT). The samples were
subjected to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC,
PYRIS1DSC) under argon atmosphere protection at a
heating rate of 5 ℃·min-1 in the temperature range of
30-400 ℃. The linear thermal expansion coefficient of
the samples were measured by a pushrod type expan-
sion meter (DIL 402C) at the heating rate of 2 ℃·min-1
in the temperature range of 30-70 ℃. The melt tem-
perature and thermogravimetric analysis of alloy sam-
ples were tested at a heating rate of 2 ℃·min-1 and un-
der an gas flow of N2 by thermogravimetry/differential
thermal analyzer (TG/DTA, Perkin Elmer Diamond
TG/DTA). The alloy samples for thermal expansion
coefficient were processed to 5×5×20 mm by wire cut-
ting.
The thermal diffusion coefficient of the alloy with
the size of 2.5×10×10 mm at different temperature was
measured by laser flash method (LFA 457) and aver-
aged after multiple measurements. The thermal conduc-
tivity was calculated from Eq.(1)[22]:
λ = α ⋅ ρ ⋅ Cp (1)
where a is the thermal diffusion coefficient, ρ is the
density and Cp is the specific heat capacity at constant
pressure.
The density of the solid alloy was calculated from
the equation[23]:
BaCl2
3-5
ρ ρ0 (1 + ∆L / L0 )-3
= (2)
-
where ΔL/L0 is the relative elongation, and ρ0 is the
density of the sample at room temperature measured by
the Archimedes method.
The relationship between the saturated vapor
pressure and the temperature of the liquid metal can be
expressed as[24]:
lg p* = AT −1 + B lg T + CT + D (3)
where p* is the saturated vapor pressure of the pure
component, A, B, C and D are the evaporation con-
stants of the alloy component, and T is the absolute
temperature.
678 Vol.34 No.3 WANG Qingmeng et al: Microstructures and Thermal Properties of Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga...

3 Results and discussion Sn–50Bi–2Zn alloy is composed of white Bi phases,

3.1 Microstructures and phases
The X-ray diffraction patterns of (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–
xGa alloys were shown in Fig.1. It can be seen that the
Sn–50Bi–2Zn alloys mainly composed of Sn phase, Bi
phase and Zn phase. The diffraction intensity of Zn is
not obvious because the content of Zn is only 2 wt%.
As seen in Fig.1, the phase structure was changed in
the Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga alloys, which mainly consists of Sn
phase, Bi phase, Zn phase and Ga phase. The diffraction
intensity of Ga phase gradually increased with the in-
creasing Ga content. Results shown in Table 2 indicate
that the chemical composition of (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa
alloys is roughly the same with the designed alloys.
Fig.1 XRD patterns of the test alloys
Table 2 Compositions of the test alloys measured by XRF
XRF results/wt%
Samples Designed compounds
Sn Bi
A1 Sn–50Bi–2Zn 48.29 49.57
A2 (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–1Ga 47.61 49.51
A3 (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–3Ga 46.65 48.57
A4 (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–5Ga 45.62 47.58
A5 (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga 44.73 46.54
Fig.2 shows the microstructures of the (Sn–
50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloys. Table 3 shows compositions
of the phases exhibited in Fig.2, obtained from EDS
analysis. As shown in Fig.2 (a), the microstructure of
gray Sn phases and acicular Zn phases, and the acicular
Zn-rich phase is dispersed in Sn phases and the net-
work Sn-Bi structures. The composition of white phase
approached to pure Bi dissolved with Sn (9.19 at%)
and Zn (2.52 at%). Since the needle-like Zn phases
may form a continuous network with the layered Sn
phases and the Bi phases, Sn and Bi can be observed in
the zinc-rich phase region. It was found that the black
phase is Zn-rich phase dissolved with large amount of
Sn (76.6 at%) and Bi (9.6 at%). According to the (Sn–
50Bi–2Zn)–1Ga microstructure diagram (Fig.2 (b)), the
microstructure and phase compositions are roughly the
same with the Sn-50Bi-2Zn alloy, the Ga phases are not
significantly shown in Fig.2 (b). The composition of
the grey phase analyzed with EDS approached to pure
Sn dissolved with Bi (7.45 at%) and Zn (2.22 at%). As
can be seen from the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–3Ga microstruc-
ture diagram shown in Fig.2 (c), the region of Bi-rich
phases shrinks and more dark gray Sn-rich phases can
be observed. The results show that (Sn+Ga+Zn) struc-
tures were formed in the alloy. The microstructures of
the as-cast (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–5Ga were investigated as
shown in Fig.2 (d). Different from the A2 and A3 alloys,
more dark Ga-rich phases and less needle-like Zn-rich
phases can be observed in the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–5Ga
alloy. It can be seen from the microstructure diagram
that the size and proportion of the (Bi+Ga+Zn) struc-
tures were increased with Ga additions. According to
the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga microstructure diagram (Fig.2
(e)), the region of Zn-rich phases shrinks and more
Zn Ga
(Bi+Ga+Zn) structures were formed. With the increase
2.14 0 of Ga addition, the microstructure of the alloy tends to
1.91 0.97
be uniform and small.
1.87 2.91
3.2 Melting point and the specific heat
1.86 4.94
capacity
1.81 6.92
The melting temperature is an important physi-
cal property for heat transfer fluid. A promising alloy
should have a low melting temperature. Fig.4 shows the
melting point and melting enthalpy curves of (Sn–50Bi–
2Zn)–xGa alloys. There is only one endothermic peak
in the solid-liquid phase transition of the Sn–50Bi–2Zn

Table 3 Chemical compositions of the microstructures in Fig. 2 /at%

Phase A B C D E F G H
Sn 9.19 83.03 76.60 1.45 90.33 15.51 77.07 8.32
Bi 88.29 15.53 9.60 96.32 7.45 0 2.15 41.16
Zn 2.52 3.43 13.80 2.23 2.22 2.56 2.21 1.72
Ga 0 0 0 0 0 81.93 18.57 48.80
Closest phase Bi-rich Sn+Bi Zn-rich Bi+Zn Sn-rich Ga-rich Sn+Ga Bi+Ga
Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed. www.jwutms.net June 2019 679

Fig. 2 Microstructure images of the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloys: (a), (b) Bi-Pb-Zn alloy; (c, d) (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–1Ga; (e, f) (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–
3Ga; (g, h) (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–5Ga and (i, j) (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga
680 Vol.34 No.3 WANG Qingmeng et al: Microstructures and Thermal Properties of Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga...

alloy, which is consistent with the existing phase dia- The temperature dependence of specific heat ca-
gram[25]. The results of DSC measurement are shown in pacity of (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloys were shown in
Fig.3 and summarized in Table 4. As shown in Fig.4, the Fig.4. Results indicate that the specific heat of the test
melting temperature of Sn–50Bi–2Zn alloy decreased alloys increased with Ga additions. According to the
gradually with the increasing Ga content. Compared with microstructure analysis of the alloy, when the addition
Sn–50Bi–2Zn, more kinds of solid solution structures amount is large, the alloy will absorb more energy
and phases were formed in the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa when it is heated due to the increase of the micro-inter-
alloy. When the addition atoms enter the matrix alloy, face formed between the new structure and the phase.
the original metal bonds are destroyed and the inside of As can be seen from Table 5, the specific heat capaci-
the metal is in a chaotic state, the metal internal energy ties of the liquid alloy were slightly higher than the sol-
increases, resulting in lower melting point. It also can be id state, indicating that the alloys can absorb more heat
seen from Fig.4 that the increase of the melting enthalpy in the liquid state.
is attributed to more interfaces in the Ga-containing al- Table 5 The average specific heat capacity in different states of
loy. The principle of alloy melting is the bonds between the samples
the metal atoms destroyed by the energy. The more spe- The average specific heat capacity/(J·g-1·K-1)
Samples
cies the phases has, the more metal bonds between the Solid state Liquid state
atoms, so more energy is needed when the alloy melts, A1 0.178 0.19
this is the reason of the melting enthalpy increase. A2 0.214 0.232
A3 0.238 0.257
A4 0.266 0.284
A5 0.322 0.345

3.3 Saturated vapor pressure and thermog-

ravimetric analysis

Fig.3 DSC curves of the sample alloys

Table 4 The melting point and melting enthalpy of the sample

alloys
Melting temperature/℃ Melting enthalpy/(J·g-1)
Compounds
Onset Peak End ΔHm
A1 133.49 136.15 141.4 47.62 Fig.5 The relationship between saturated vapor pressure and
A2 127.4 132.4 141.7 51.83 temperature of the alloy component
A3 119.7 128.9 138.2 53.94
Vapor pressure is an important parameter for heat
A4 108.5 125.1 136.9 58.08
transfer fluids. The higher the vapor pressure, the easier
A5 99.5 122.0 135.9 65.12
it is to evaporate the metal element. Under the same
conditions, the element with high vapor pressure is
more likely to evaporate than the element with low va-
por pressure. The relationship between the saturated va-
por pressure and the temperature of pure Sn, Bi, Zn and
Ga can be calculated from Eq.(3) and the evaporation
constants of the alloy components are shown in Table
6. As can be seen from Fig.5, the saturated vapor pres-
sure of the alloying element increased with increasing
temperature, but the increase rate of Zn is much larger
than that of other elements. The evaporation order ob-
Fig.4 Temperature dependence of the specific heat capacity tained by saturation vapor pressure standard is Zn> Bi>
Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed. www.jwutms.net June 2019 681

Table 6 Evaporation constant of the alloy component

Melting Boiling
Element A B C×103 D Temperature range /℃
temperature Tm/℃ temperature Tb/℃
Sn -9 340 — — 7.42 500-Tb 232 2 623
Bi -10 400 -1.26 — 12.35 Tm-Tb 271 1 680
Zn -6 620 -1.255 — 12.34 Tm-Tb 426 907
Ga -14 330 -0.844 — 11.42 Tm-Tb 30 2 420

Sn> Ga. Therefore, when the temperature increases, Zn
will take precedence over other elements to evaporate
into the gas phase.
Fig.6 Thermogravimetric analysis of the test alloys
Thermogravimetric analysis is shown in Fig.6,
where the weight change of the alloy was recorded
from room temperature to 1 000 ℃. As can be seen
from Fig.7, the weight change of the alloy was kept
below 0.5 % before 900 ℃. The results show that
(Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloy has good thermal stability at
low temperatures. It can also be seen that the weight of
the test alloy is significantly reduced above 900 ℃ and
the weight loss is similar to the Zn content. This result
is consistent with the calculation of the vapor pressure.
3.4 Thermal expansion and density
The effect of Ga additions on the thermal expan-
sion of Sn–50Bi–2Zn alloy can be seen from Fig.7. The
thermal expansion coefficients of the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–x
Ga alloys are 14.1, 14.5, 15.2, 16.3 and 16.7 ×10-6 /℃,
respectively. As can be seen in Fig.8, the elongation of
all the samples increased with increasing temperature
and the values displayed a slight increase with increas-
ing Ga content. The reason may be as follows: From
the micro-morphology analysis, it is known that there
is Ga-rich phase in the alloys. The Ga element melts
when the temperature rises above 30 ℃ because of the
low melting point. The phase transition after melting
may lead to an increase in the coefficient of thermal
expansion. Due to the small Ga content, the thermal ex-
pansion coefficient of the alloy cannot be significantly
increased. However, when the Ga content is increased
to 7 wt%, the effect is more pronounced.
Density is one of the parameter for thermal con-
ductivity calculation. The density at different tempera-
ture has been measured by the Archimedes method.
Based on Eq.(1) and experimental data of liquid alloys,
the curves of densities with temperature are also ob-
tained in Fig.8. The density of the alloys decreased with
increasing Ga element. The reason may be the density
of Sn–50Bi–2Zn alloy is 8.257 g/cm3 and the density
of pure Ga is 5.904 g/cm3, the density value difference
reached 40 %. It can also be seen from Fig.9 that the
density of all alloys in the solid state decreases as the
temperature increases. However, due to the special
nature of the Bi element, the density of the (Sn–50Bi–

Fig.7 Temperature dependence of the linear thermal expansion coefficient of the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–xGa alloys: (a) relative elongation, (b)
linear thermal expansion coefficient
682 Vol.34 No.3 WANG Qingmeng et al: Microstructures and Thermal Properties of Sn–Bi–Zn–Ga...

2Zn)–xGa alloy increases when it changes to a liquid
state and then decreases as the temperature increases.
resulting in a decrease in the thermal diffusivity of the
alloy matrix. It can also be seen from Table 7 that the
thermal diffusivity of the liquid alloy increases as the
temperature increases. Because the movement of free
electrons in the matrix is accelerated with the increase
of temperature, the atomic motion is accelerated and
the number of collisions between atoms increases,
which inevitably leads to an increase in the thermal
diffusivity of the alloy.

Fig.8 Temperature dependence of density of the test alloys

3.5 T h e r m a l d i f f u s i v i t y a n d t h e r m a l
conductivity
Table 7 Thermal diffusivity of the test alloys at different
temperature
Thermal diffusivity/(mm2/s)
Samples
50 ℃ 150 ℃ 250 ℃ 350 ℃ Fig.9 Temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity
A1 18.19 16.02 16.58 18.21
A2 17.15 15.18 15.71 17.24 Thermal conductivity can be calculated by ther-
A3 15.26 14.11 14.58 16.01 mal diffusivity, density, and specific heat capacity.
A4 15.54 13.78 14.25 15.62 Fig.9 shows the thermal conductivity of the test alloy
A5 15.92 14.24 14.73 16.04 calculated by Eq.(1). It can be seen that the thermal
conductivity of the Ga-containing alloy is higher than
In addition to the importance of melting point that of Sn–50Bi–2Zn. Although the increase in the Ga
and melting enthalpy of the tested alloys, the heat content leads to a decrease in the density and the ther-
conducting behaviors at different temperatures were mal diffusivity, the thermal conductivity of the alloy
also defined as a very crucial thermal property. The does not decrease significantly due to the increase in
thermal diffusivity shown in Table 7 was measured the specific heat capacity. Results in Fig.9 also indicate
by Laser-flash method. Results indicate that the ther- that due to the change of density and thermal properties
mal diffusivity of the alloys decreased with increasing of the alloy from solid state to liquid state, the thermal
Ga additions. Since the Ga element forms more solid conductivity tends to decrease firstly and then increase.
solution structures and phases in the alloy matrix, the It is foreseen that the thermal conductivity of the alloys
alloy forms more micro interfaces. In the heat transfer will rise with increasing temperature in liquid state.
process, free electrons and phonons collide with atoms 3.6 A comparison with other materials as
and molecules, and they are also scattered by the in- heat transfer materials
terface and various defects to form thermal resistance, The (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga alloy has higher thermal

Table 8 Comparison of the thermophysical properties of (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga alloy with other materials
Density Specific heat Thermal conductivity Phase change
Melting enthalpy
Material (25 ℃) (25 ℃) (25 ℃) temperature
/(g·cm-3) /(J·g-1·K-1) /(W·m-1·K-1) /(J·g-1) /℃
b b b
Water 1 4.18 0.5-0.7 2 675.58a 0b
Heat-conducting oil 0.83-0.91a 1.8-3.3a,b 0.12a,b 19.9a -10a,b
a a,c a,b a
NaNO3/KNO3 1.85 0.84 0.5 130.08 215a
(Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga 7.93c 0.322-0.345 40.52c 65.12 99.5
a b c
values from Refs.3-18; Liquid; Solid
 Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed. www.jwutms.net June 2019
conductivity, lower melting point and higher energy
density, so it is selected to be compared with other
traditional heat transfer fluids. Table 8 shows the most
important thermophysical properties of water/steam,
heat-conducting oil and molten salt as well as those of
the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga alloy. As shown in Table 8,
the melting temperatures of these materials are in the
range of 100-250 ℃, where the thermal conductivity
is much higher than any other heat transfer materials.
The melting enthalpies of water/steam and molten salt
are higher than that of the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga alloy.
The specific heat is much smaller and the density of
(Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga alloy is between 4.3 and 9.5 times
higher than other materials. It can be seen that the main
advantages of the (Sn–50Bi–2Zn)–7Ga alloy over the
other materials are the high thermal conductivity and
high density.
4 Conclusions
The results indicate that after adding Ga ele-
ments in the Sn–Bi–Zn eutectic alloy, the melting
point reduced to 99.5-129 ℃, phase change enthalpy
increased to 48.95-65.12 J·g-1. The specific heat capac-
ities of the liquid alloys were slightly higher than that
of the solid alloys. The microstructure shows the Ga-
containing alloys forms more micro-interfaces than the
Sn–50Bi–2Zn, and thus improves the thermal proper-
ties of the solid-state alloys. The thermal conductivity
of the alloys increased with increasing Ga content and
the temperature also affects the thermal conductivity of
the alloy. As the specific heat capacity and thermal dif-
fusivity increased with temperature, liquid alloys have
better thermal properties than solid alloys. The thermo-
gravimetric analysis showed that the alloys exhibited
significant weight loss above 900 ℃, consistent with
the calculated vapor pressure results.
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