Research progress in metastable β-type titanium alloys for biomedical applications

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys are promising biomedical metallic materials due to their high specific strength, low Young's modulus, nonmagnetic, excellent biocompatibility and corrosion resistance. A new generation of metastable β-type Ti alloys with non-toxic Nb, Mo, Ta, Zr and Sn alloying elements and low Young's modulus has become the key research direction of Ti alloys for biomedical applications. The basic characteristics and development history of biomedical titanium alloys were reviewed. Taking Ti-Nb based biomedical titanium alloys as an example, the composition design method, alloying principle, research status and preparation technology of new metastable β-type biomedical titanium alloys were introduced. Finally, it was pointed out that the further reduction of elastic modulus and improving the comprehensive properties including strength, fatigue performance, and functional properties are the key development directions of β-type Ti alloys for biomedical applications. In the future, in-depth research should be placed on the interaction mechanism of alloying elements, chemical composition design approach, microstructure and mechanical properties regulation methods, as well as micromechanical mechanisms.

Keywords

• biomedical titanium alloy
• current development
• composition design
• microstructure manipulation
• preparation technology