Effect of Ti on microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of Zr-Ta-Ti alloys processed by spark plasma sintering

Abstract

The microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of Zr-30%Ta and Zr-25%Ta-5%Ti alloy prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technology were investigated. The experimental results showed that the Zr-Ta-Ti alloys made by the SPS processing have a low level of porosity with the relative density of 96%–98%. The analyses of XRD and TEM revealed that the Zr-30Ta alloy consists of α+β phase, and the Zr-25Ta-5Ti alloy belongs to the near β type alloy containing a small amount of α and ω phases. With the addition of Ti, the elastic modulus of the alloys was decreased from (99.5±7.2) GPa for Zr-30Ta alloy to (73.6±6.3) GPa for Zr-25Ta-5Ti alloy. Furthermore, it is shown that, in comparison to CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy, the Zr-Ta-Ti alloy produced in this work offers an improved corrosion resistance due to the more stable ZrO₂ and Ta₂O₅ generated in the passivation film on the surface of the alloys. This study demonstrates that Zr-Ta-Ti alloys are a promising candidate of novel metallic biomaterials.

Keywords

spark plasma sintering / mechanical properties / microstructure / corrosion resistance / Zr alloy

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