Development of Ti-30 mass% Ta alloy for biomedical applications

In the present study, the effects of Ta content on the dynamic Young's modulus and tensile properties of Ti-Ta alloys were investigated in order to find a Ti-Ta alloy that gives low modulus and high strength for biomedical applications. For this purpose, the ingots of Ti-Ta alloys with Ta contents from 10 to 50 mass % were melted, and then rolled into the plate of 3 mm thick. All the specimens were solution treated at 1223 K in the β field for 3.6 ks and then quenched in ice water. Subsequently, some of them were aged at 773 K for 259.2 ks followed by a rapid quenching in ice water. The corrosion capacity and biocompatibility of typical Ti-Ta alloy were also evaluated. The experimental results indicate that the Ti-30% Ta alloy has better mechanical biocompatibility, corrosion capacity and cyto-toxicity than Ti-6A1-4V alloy used as a standard biomaterial, and thus it will be of considerable development for biomedical applications.