Superelasticity Evaluation of the Biocompatible Ti-17Nb-6Ta Alloy.

Alaa Keshtta,Mohamed A.-H Gepreel

doi:10.1155/2019/8353409

Alaa Keshtta, Mohamed A.-H Gepreel

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8353409

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Abstract

Recently, studying the shape memory effect of the biocompatible Ti alloys takes much attention in the biomedical and healthcare applications. This study concerns about characterizing the superelasticity of the new biocompatible Ti-17Nb-6Ta (TNT) alloy. Microstructure of TNT was observed using optical and confocal microscopes. The alloy consists of two phases: β (predominant phase) and α″ martensite phase. The influence of cold rolling deformation on the microstructure was illustrated in which the martensitic-induced transformation appeared by cold rolling. The alloy is ductile as only the fracture dimples appeared in its fracture surface. Multicyclic loading and deloading tensile testing was applied to TNT specimens (flat and wire shapes) in order to evaluate the superelasticity. A superelastic strain as high as 3.5% was recorded for this TNT alloy. Therefore, TNT alloy has high potential for many biomedical and healthcare applications.

Highlights

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) covered great areas in all biomedical, healthcare, and industrial fields as they become one of the main partners in most precise applications
SMAs are widely spread in the last decades as it is involved in many industries such as aerospace, automotive, and biomedical applications [2, 3]. e unique properties of the SMA open the opportunities for complicated applications as the material response may generate a motion or apply a force due to the shape memory effect
In the last two decades, the shape memory alloys became a big interest for the researcher, a candidate in biomedical applications. e increasing demand for new materials due to the expanding applications in biomedical fields resulted in more patents which exceeded half of the shape memory alloys patents in US over a 13-year-period from 1990 to 2013, as the patents in the biomedical field counted about 61% of the total SMA patents [2]. e SMAs are already contributing in enormous biomedical applications such as orthodontics, orthopedics, and vascular system [6,7,8,9,10]

Summary

Introduction

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) covered great areas in all biomedical, healthcare, and industrial fields as they become one of the main partners in most precise applications. E unique properties of the SMA open the opportunities for complicated applications as the material response may generate a motion or apply a force due to the shape memory effect. It can restore energy of the deformation which results from the superelastic effect [1, 4, 5]. Is Ni-free proposed shape memory alloy is designed to be used in biomedical stents and orthodontic application instead of the most commonly used alloys (i.e., Nitinol) which proved to cause allergy to a number of patients. E aim of this work is to investigate the new biocompatible Ti-17Nb-6Ta (TNT) alloy as a new candidate shape memory alloy. is Ni-free proposed shape memory alloy is designed to be used in biomedical stents and orthodontic application instead of the most commonly used alloys (i.e., Nitinol) which proved to cause allergy to a number of patients. e superelastic properties of the new TNT alloy had not been fully characterized before, so this study is proposed to catch the unknown trends of it with a focus on the superelasticity

Experimental Procedures

Results and Discussion

Conclusions