Preparation and characterization of Ti-10Mo-xZr alloys for biomedical applications

Titanium alloys are constantly being studied for possible applications as biomaterials. However, studies suggest that aluminum and vanadium, when used in the human body over long period of time, are associated with adverse reactions and allergies. So there is a need to develop alloys that are both free of these elements and have mechanical properties that are good as or better than the Ti-6Al-4V alloy. In this paper, alloys were prepared from the Ti-10Mo-xZr system (x = 5, 10, 15, 20 wt%). These were characterized by their chemical composition via energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), density, x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, and microhardness. The results showed that the alloys have the desired stoichiometry and a good homogeneity structure. Microstructure analyses indicated the predominance of the β phase with a body-centered cubic crystal structure and that the addition of substitutional elements caused the solid solution to harden.