Development of a new β Ti alloy with low modulus and favorable plasticity for implant material

Abstract

One of the most important development directions of the Ti and its alloys is the applications in medical field. Development of new Ti alloys with low elastic modulus and/or favorable biocompatibility plays an important role for promoting its application in medical field. In this work, a new β Ti alloy (Ti-31Nb-6Zr-5Mo, wt.%) was designed for implant material using d-electron alloy design method. Microstructure and tensile properties of the designed alloy after hot rolling (HR) and solution followed by aging treatments (SA) were investigated. Results show that the designed alloy is composed of single β phase. However, microstructural analysis shows that the β phase in the designed alloy separates into Nb-rich and Nb-poor phase regions. The Nb-rich regions in HR specimen are typical elongated fiber texture, but are equiaxed particles with several micrometers in SA specimen. Tensile results show that the designed alloy has low Young's modulus of 44 GPa for HR specimen and 48 GPa for SA specimen which are very close to the extreme of Young's modulus of bulk titanium alloys. At the same time, the designed alloy has favorable plasticity in term of elongation of 26.7% for HR specimen and 20.6% for SA specimen, and appropriate tensile strength over 700 MPa. In short, the designed alloy has low elastic modulus close to that of bone and favorable plasticity and strength which can be a potential candidate for hard tissue replacements.

Keywords: Implant material; Low elastic modulus; Microstructure; Ti alloy.