Extra-high oxygen addition as a new strengthening strategy to overcome strength/ductility trade-off in fully biocompatible hexagonal titanium alloys

Régis Poulain,Ivan Guillot,Frédéric Prima,Emmanuel Clouet,Jean-Philippe Couzinié,Stéphanie Delannoy

doi:10.1051/matecconf/202032105012

Abstract

A new titanium alloy family was developed aiming at creating a fully biocompatible alternative to titanium alloys currently on the dental implants market. Despite their hexagonal closepacked (HCP) single-phase structure, these Ti-Zr-O materials display an extremely interesting combination of properties. Zirconium is shown to be involved through a double contribution: on the one hand, a moderate but noticeable solid solution strengthening effect and on the other hand, a strong grain refinement. Therefore, the combination of both effects results in a beneficial strengthening of Ti-Zr-O alloys. However, the main remarkable aspect remains the outstanding hardening generated by extra high oxygen addition, occurring without any drop of ductility. The evolution of the dislocation network according to the oxygen content has been investigated to understand the underlying mechanisms in these Ti-Zr-O alloys, allowing to overcome the classical strength/ductility trade-off in commercial titanium alloys. Finally, the different perspectives of these findings in the field of biomedical and more generally in the field of titanium alloys are discussed.

Highlights

Thanks to an excellent combination of properties such as biocompatibility or corrosion resistance, the use of titanium in dental implants has become predominant in modern dentistry
The current study aims to present a new fully biocompatible titanium alloy family specially designed for dental applications
The evolution of Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) mapping of recrystallised samples according to zirconium content is displayed along the rolling direction (RD) on figure 1

Summary

Introduction

Thanks to an excellent combination of properties such as biocompatibility or corrosion resistance, the use of titanium in dental implants has become predominant in modern dentistry. The current study aims to present a new fully biocompatible titanium alloy family specially designed for dental applications. Among the most biocompatible metals, zirconium provides the advantages of being one of the most resistant with respect to corrosion [4] and of being miscible in any proportion with titanium [5].

Results

Conclusion