Viscosity transition of ZnO-containing rosin

Eutectic alloy Sn-9Zn is regarded as one of the potential substitutes for Pb-containing solders, although it has some drawbacks yet to overcome. One of the problems involved is drastic viscosity increase of rosin-based flux during soldering or storage. In the present work we investigated the role of ZnO in the viscosity transition of rosin. The results show that the viscosity transition is directly caused by the presence of ZnO in molten rosin and, at a certain temperature, there exists a critical ZnO concentration for its occurrence. The critical ZnO concentration increases with temperature. A graph is presented to show the conditions for the viscosity transition, in a ZnO concentration-temperature space. The transition is found to be reversible when shifting temperature or ZnO concentration across the boundary and to assume the features of a thermally activated phase transformation.