Preparation and nucleation of spherical metallic droplet

Abstract

The preparation and solidification of metallic droplets attract more and more attention for their significance in both engineering and scientific fields. In this paper, the preparation and characterization of Sn-based alloy droplets using different methods such as atomization and consumable electrode direct current arc (CDCA) technique are reviewed. The morphology and structure of these droplets were determined by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The solidification behavior of single droplet was systematically studied by means of scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the nucleation kinetics was also calculated. In particular, the development of fast scanning calorimetry (FSC) made it possible to investigate the evolution of undercooling under ultrafast but controllable heating and cooling conditions. The combination of CDCA technique and FSC measurements opens up a new door for quantitative studies on droplet solidification, which is accessible to demonstrate some theories by experiments.

Keywords

• droplet solidification; fast scanning calorimetry; controllable cooling; nucleation; undercooling