The effect of plastic deformation at near room temperature on the solid state reactions between Ni and Sn

Solid state reactions between Ni and Sn at two compositions, Ni75Sn25 and Ni60Sn40, have been induced by means of near room temperature cold rolling and mechanical alloying. The reaction steps have been monitored by x-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. At both compositions, the first effect of plastic deformation is the formation of two metastable phases which, by further milling or low temperature thermal treatment, transform into the Ni3Sn4 compound. The chemical composition of the metastable phases has been determined to be close to that of Ni3Sn4 and the crystal structure of one of them appears to be related to that of β–Sn. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermal treatment of samples containing the metastable phases have shown that these phases transform into Ni3Sn4 at about 150 °C and that no other reaction takes place up to this temperature. Upon prolonged milling, a different behavior has been observed for the two compositions. While the Ni60Sn40 mixture eventually forms the Ni3Sn2 compound in agreement with previous results, the final product of mechanically alloying the Ni75Sn25 mixture is a phase whose structure, rather than amorphous as previously hypothesized, in our case can be described as based on that of the disordered high temperature form of the Ni3Sn compound. Differential scanning calorimetry and x-ray diffraction analysis of this sample have shown the formation, at 380 °C, of ordered Ni3Sn with an associated heat release of about 10 kJ/mole.