Microstructures and mechanical properties of Ti-50 mass% Ta alloy for biomedical applications

The microstructures and resulting mechanical properties of Ti-50 mass% Ta alloy were investigated for biomedical applications. The microstructures were examined using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the dynamic elastic modulus was measured by the vibration resonance way and the tensile properties by a tensile test. Ti-50 mass% Ta alloy exhibits the orthorhombic martensite (alpha '') structure after the given solution treatment, and this microstructure is sensitive to both aging temperature and time. The different microstructures precipitate during the subsequent aging treatments, resulting in various mechanical properties. The alpha+beta microstructure obtained by aging at 873 K for 259.2 ks exhibits a lower modulus, better mechanical biocompatibility and moderate elongation to failure. hence it is more suitable than the other microstructures for biomedical applications. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.