Revealing the Formation, Growth, Prevalence and Impact of Metal Whiskers

Dear Colleagues,

In this era of big data and Industry 4.0, huge significance is attached to the integrity and reliability of devices and components used in scientific and technological applications. Metallic materials are utilized in industrial applications at a large scale. Metal whiskers are hair-like protrusions that spontaneously grow from the surface of certain metals (e.g., Sn, Zn, Cd, Ge or Pb). The growth of whiskers can cause short-circuit problems and other reliability issues in the context of devices with electrical connections.

Though metal whiskering is a commonly observed phenomenon in industrial applications, the exact mechanisms responsible for the formation and growth of these single crystals are not fully understood hitherto. Some evidence has been observed regarding the role of mechanical stress and stress gradients as the triggering factor for the growth of these structures. However, much more study is needed at multi-length and -time scales to completely unravel the mechanisms driving the formation, growth, and prevalence of metal whiskers.

Therefore, it is necessary to amalgamate the aspects of experiments, modeling, and data science for state-of-the-art multi-scale characterization and description of metal whiskers. The quantitative data of whiskers’ origin and impact can be essentially utilized for the retrospective design of techniques to reduce the probability of their incidence. This Special Issue is aimed at recent advances in mechanistic and experimental investigation of metallic whiskers, including exploratory study using machine learning models.

Dr. Anil Kunwar
Dr. Johan Hektor
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.