Microstructures and Elastic Moduli of Binary Titanium Alloys Containing Biocompatible Alloying Elements

Abstract

New titanium alloys with a low elastic modulus have been developed for biomedical applications to avoid the stress shielding effect of an artificial prosthesis. The newly developed alloys contained the transition elements like Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta which were non-cytotoxicity elements and β stabilizers. In the present paper the elastic moduli of Ti-xM containing Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta were evaluated by measuring the velocity of supersonic wave (Pulse Echo Overlap). The effectiveness of the alloying elements for lowering the elastic modulus was investigated. In addition, the dominant factors for the low modulus were discussed. Ta was the most effective in lowering the elastic modulus of the alloys. The effectiveness of Hf was not acceptable for decreasing the elastic modulus. The dominant factor was the lattice parameter for Zr, and the poisson's ratio for Nb, Ta, respectively, in lowering the elastic modulus of Ti.