Effect of electrotransfer and indium additions on contact melting and phase formation in bismuth–tin systems

Contact melting with and without electrotransfer is studied in Sn–Bi systems with small additions of indium to each component. The effect admixtures have on the rate of contact melting is shown to be unclear. The structures of the obtained alloys are highly inhomogenous with multiple inclusions of dendrites. An X-ray analysis of the transformed interlayers is performed. A number of intermetallides are observed, including ones not found on the phase diagrams of binary systems. An attempt is made to explain these findings.