Mimetic polyalloy

Conundrum, Mon Sept 24 2018, 07:45PM

Hi, thought this might be relevant.

During searching for an alloy that used as little indium (In) as possible intended to weigh down food waste bins I may have found something interesting incidentally.

Based on earlier work with related alloys, the compound BiInSn as a starting point and substituting Zn and Cu for some of the In
may yield a material with a very low melting point and some unusual resistance properties.

Seems that my notes (circa 2011) contain a reference to a resistance drop at about 0.7C which *might* be the onset of superconductivity in a small portion of the material but as others have pointed out could be a number of other effects.


The formula is quite complex but contains bismuth, indium, tin, zinc and copper with some sort of impurities (possibly Pb) but hard to tell for sure as the notes were in a folder and backed up on very old CDR which is now unreadable.
I think I still have the original accidentally made sample but not sure exactly where it got to.
From memory and written notes it got made using DC electric current in an attempt to cause a structural change, also a related material using BiMg also has some strange properties and unusual crystallization.


Is this worth looking into further?
I might have found a way to use it for 3D printing as well as that sharp eutectic point could be useful for some
types of printing where the aim is to make circuit traces or connect fragile components directly.