Abstract
Ti40Zr10Cu36Pd14 Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG) appears very attractive for future biomedical applications thanks to its high glass forming ability, the absence of toxic elements such as Ni, Al or Be and its good mechanical properties. For the first time, a complete and exhaustive characterization of a unique batch of this glassy alloy was performed, together with ISO standard mechanical tests on machined implant-abutment assemblies. The results were compared to the benchmark Ti-6Al-4V ELI (Extra-Low-Interstitial) to assess its potential in dental implantology. The thermal stability, corrosion and sterilization resistance, cytocompatibility and mechanical properties were measured on samples with a simple geometry, but also on implant-abutment assemblies’ prototypes. Results show that the glassy alloy exhibits a quite high thermal stability, with a temperature range of 38 °C between the glass transition and crystallization, a compressive strength of 2 GPa, a certain plastic deformation (0.7%), a hardness of 5.5 GPa and a toughness of 56 MPa.√m. Moreover, the alloy shows a relatively lower Young’s modulus (96 GPa) than the Ti-6Al-4V alloy (110–115 GPa), which is beneficial to limit bone stress shielding. The BMG shows a satisfactory cytocompatibility, a high resistance to sterilization and a good corrosion resistance (corrosion potential of −0.07 V/SCE and corrosion current density of 6.0 nA/cm2), which may ensure its use as a biomaterial. Tests on dental implants reveal a load to failure 1.5-times higher than that of Ti-6Al-4V and a comparable fatigue limit. Moreover, implants could be machined and sandblasted by methods usually conducted for titanium implants, without significant degradation of their amorphous nature. All these properties place this metallic glass among a promising class of materials for mechanically-challenging applications such as dental implants.
Highlights
Titanium alloys have been traditionally used to design implants and implantable devices due to their excellent combination of high strength, high corrosion resistance and satisfactory biocompatibility [1]
Ti-based bulk metallic glasses offer exceptional specific strength, high corrosion resistance, high hardness, low Young’s modulus, a certain amount of ductility and processing capabilities desired for biomedical applications [2]
Ti40 Zr10 Cu36 Pd14 bulk metallic glass evidences a high glass forming ability allowing it to be cast in a 5 mm-diameter rod shape, while keeping its fully amorphous structure
Summary
Titanium alloys have been traditionally used to design implants and implantable devices due to their excellent combination of high strength, high corrosion resistance and satisfactory biocompatibility [1] These alloys seem to reach a plateau in terms of mechanical properties, which can be a limit as far as downsizing of implants is concerned in modern surgeries. Ti-based bulk metallic glasses without toxic elements were proposed in the Ti-Zr-Cu-Pd system They have demonstrated a high glass forming ability (with a critical diameter of 6 mm [15,16], which should be large enough to machine dental implants and dental abutment pieces), excellent mechanical properties [15] and a good corrosion resistance [16]. The well-known Ti40 Zr10 Cu36 Pd14 alloy shows a great potential to be used as a dental implant material, as it exhibits a higher strength and lower Young’s modulus (2 GPa and 90 GPa, respectively) compared to Ti-6Al-4V alloy [16,17,18]
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