Mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of two new titanium alloys for orthopaedics applications

Abstract

Due to the compatibility problems of biomaterials currently used in biomedicine, such as Ti6Al4V alloy, whose release of vanadium and aluminum ions can cause adverse local tissue reactions and immunological responses, the effect of 2 percentage variants of the elements that make up the innovative TiMoZrXSi alloy has been investigated, with the aim of understanding its microstructure, microhardness, corrosion resistance and modulus of elasticity in order to be able to manufacture medical instruments [1]. The alloys analyzed were obtained by vacuum arc remelting from high purity raw materials and their surfaces were prepared prior to testing by cutting, mounting on epoxy resin cylinders and polishing [2]. Once the techniques have been applied, the metallographic study only shows the two-phase structure of the sample with silicon. In contrast, electrochemical tests confirmed that the lower the percentage of silicon in the samples, the higher the corrosion resistance. As for the threepoint bending test, the data obtained for the 2 samples showed that the higher the percentage of silicon, the lower the modulus of elasticity. Finally, in the case of the microhardness test, when the load was applied, as the percentage of silicon increased, the hardness increased considerably, and the surfaces showed soft and hard areas, due to the forming process.