Investigation of a New Ti-Nb-Zr-Ta Alloy by Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction and Nanoindentation

Abstract

This paper presents a new titanium alloy, corresponding to the Ti-Nb-Zr-Ta system, whose chemical composition is Ti-21Nb-6Zr-15Ta. Microstructure and phase characteristics were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Mechanical properties such as Young’s modulus and hardness were determined by nanoindentation. Ti-21Nb-6Zr- 15Ta is a near-β titanium alloy, containing β grains with a fine lamellar structure of α phase. The investigated alloy presents a low Young’s modulus, an important condition for preventing stress shielding phenomenon, which is one of the main factors that causes implant failure.