Updated September 21, 2004

Tin is an ingredient in many different solders due to its low melting point. Tin plating is used on parts that are to be soldered such as PC boards, but pure tin has a tendency to grow whiskers that can short out electronic parts.

Tin Trivia:

Pure tin plating can create tin whiskers, which can short out your circuit board before its time! Lead is banned in Europe, so many vendors are going to pure tin. Here's an image we borrowed from http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker:

When someone says they are "tinning a lead", they are putting solder on it. In some cases, the solder contains no tin, and the "lead" is plated with tin... so they might be "leading a tin" instead!

Formula or Composition:	Sn
Bulk Resistivity:	11.4 -cm
Temperature Coefficient of Resistivity (TCR):	4700 ppm/°C
Mass Density:	7.31 gr/cc
Heat Capacity:	222.1 J/kg/°C
Thermal Conductivity (k):	66.6 W/m°C
Temperature Coefficient of Expansion (TCE):	20 ppm/°C
Melting Point, °C:	232 °C
Melting Point, °F:	450 °F