Stable undercooled metallic particles for engineering at ambient conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10266925-B2
Application number	US-201614999868-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2016
Priority date	Jul 14, 2015
Publication date	Apr 23, 2019
Grant date	Apr 23, 2019

Abstract

Undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles, whose core is stable against solidification at ambient conditions, i.e. under near ambient temperature and pressure conditions, are used to join or repair metallic non-particulate components. The undercooled-shell particles in the form of nano-size or micro-size particles comprise an undercooled stable liquid metallic core encapsulated inside an outer shell, which can comprise an oxide or other stabilizer shell typically formed in-situ on the undercooled liquid metallic core. The shell is ruptured to release the liquid phase core material to join or repair a component(s).

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of joining, comprising:
rupturing an outer shell of one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles under ambient conditions, each core-shell particle having an undercooled liquid metallic core material contained within the outer shell to release the undercooled liquid metallic core material; and
solidifying the released undercooled liquid metallic core material under ambient conditions to join components that comprise at least one of a metallic material and a non-metallic material.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the undercooled liquid metallic core material has a melting point T m in the range of 26 to 900° C.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a chemistry of the components is the same as or different from a chemistry of the undercooled liquid metallic core material.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said components comprise non-particulate material.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said components comprise particulates.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the particulates comprise other said undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the particulates are placed in a mold or a container and outer shells of said particulates then are ruptured to form a molded or cast body in the mold or container.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are assembled between the components to be joined and the outer shell of the one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are ruptured.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are assembled on electrical components to be joined and the outer shell of the one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are ruptured to join the electrical components.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the electrical components are electrical wires, contact pads, or a wire-to-contact pad.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles are ruptured after being discharged from a nozzle.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said nozzle is an additive manufacturing printer nozzle.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the outer shell of the one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are ruptured in flight to a substrate or after deposition on the substrate.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the outer shell of the one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are ruptured by machining, by applying a mechanical stress, or by chemical etching using an etching reagent.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more components comprises a metallic film, metallic wire, metallic particle, metallic contact, polymer, ceramic, crystals, glass, inorganic material, or a composite material.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the outer shell of the one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is stabilized by an organic or inorganic stabilizing adlayer.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the liquid metallic core material comprises a solder alloy.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the metallic material comprises at least one of gold and silver.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the outer shell comprises an oxide and the adlayer comprises acetate.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the undercooled liquid metallic core material has a melting point range of 62° C. to 250° C.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the undercooled liquid metallic core material comprises a Bi-based solder.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the undercooled liquid metallic core material comprises a Sn-based solder.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the undercooled liquid metallic core metal comprises Field's metal.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the ambient temperature is room temperature.

25. The method of claim 2 , wherein the outer shell of the one or more undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles is/are ruptured by chemical etching using an etching reagent.

Assignees

• Univ Iowa State Res Found Inc

Inventors

• Thuo Martin
• Tevis Ian D

Classifications

• B22F1/102

  Metallic powder coated with organic material · CPC title

• B22F1/16

  Metallic particles coated with a non-metal (coated with lubricating or binding agents or with organic material B22F1/10) · CPC title

• B23K35/0244

  Powders, particles or spheres; Preforms made therefrom · CPC title

• B23K35/3013

  Au as the principal constituent · CPC title

• B22F1/02

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic