Abstract
The role of incorporation of the 0.5 and 1.0 wt% GO with the Sn–6.5Zn–0.4 wt% Cu has been researched. The effect of GO additions on the nucleation rate Φ during the solidification process of examined alloys was investigated. The microstructure characteristics, thermal behavior, and tensile stress–strain variables were examined. FE-SEM examinations revealed the existence of Zn
8
Cu
5
intermetallic compounds IMCs. The grain size of
β
-Sn and the
α
-Zn needles were remarkably refined after incorporating the GO nanosheets (GONs) in the solder alloys matrix. GONs have been sacrificed to serve as germinating seeds for nucleation embryos during the crystallization. The sophisticated microstructure caused the enhancement of the tensile parameters (i.e., Ys, UTS, and El%). Eventually, the activation energy (
Q
) and stress exponent (
n
) have been computed to estimate the deformation mechanism of the examined alloys. Based on the
Q
values of SZC-0.0GO and SZC-0.5GO solder alloys that equal 62.0 and 71.1 kJ/mol, respectively. The dislocations processes of the pipe diffusion mechanism were predominant. Moreover, increasing the GO content led to increasing the
Q
value of SZC-1.0GO to 84.8 kJ/mol, which led to converting the pipe diffusion mechanism into a lattice diffusion mechanism.