Enhanced structural and tribological performance of nanostructured Ti–15Nb alloy for biomedical applications

Abstract

Low modulus β-type Ti-15Nb alloys were prepared by subjecting them to different sintering temperatures (800, 900, 1000 and 1100 °C) and their morphological and structural properties were evaluated. X-ray diffraction analysis was used for the morphological characterization which indicated that the mean pore and crystallite size continuously decreased with increasing sintering temperature to reach the lowest values of 41 nm and 27.5 nm at 1100 °C, respectively. Moreover, the higher sintering temperature resulted in higher relative density, greater hardness and young’s modulus of the Ti-15Nb alloys. Wear tests were conducted using a ball-on-plate type Oscillating tribometer, under different applied loads (2, 8 and 16 N) to evaluate their tribological characterization. The wear rate and friction coefficient were lower at higher sintering temperature. This enhancement in tribological properties was attributed to a grain refinement. The Ti-15Nb alloys sintered at 1100 °C showed the best tribological performance. Keywords: Tribological properties, Sintering, Biomaterial, β-Ti Alloys, Ti-15Nb alloys, Milling