Fabrication of tailored Ti6Al4V-based materials by conventional powder metallurgy for bone implant applications

ABSTRACT

This works proposes a methodology for fabricating materials with specific characteristics mimicking human bones. A Ti64 alloy powder was used as the base material and it was mixed with Ag, Ta, TiN and salt particles to obtain different features. A hip-bone like component was fabricated, including a highly porous core of Ti64/25Ta/5Ag and a compact outer shell of Ti64/5Ag that is supposed to improve corrosion and osseointegration. Besides, a harder cover surface in Ti64/10TiN composite should increase the wear resistance. The green component was sintered at 1260°C in argon. Its Young’s modulus was close to the one of bones due to the added porosity, which also provided a permeability close to the one reported for trabecular bones. Tribocorrosion behaviour in simulated body fluid was improved by TiN addition. In conclusion, the proposed processing route was able to produce complex components fulfilling specific features required for human bone replacement.

KEYWORDS:

• Architecture materials
• biomedical applications
• porosity
• permeability
• mechanical properties
• tribocorrosion

Acknowledgements

They acknowledge the contribution of Dante Arteaga of the LUMIR Geosciences laboratory of UNAM, Juriquilla, to 3D image acquisition and processing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank CIC of the UMSNH for the financial support and the facilities to develop this study. It is grateful for Grenoble INP for funding a stay during the campaing of ‘Scientifiques invités 2022’ of Luis Olmos at SIMAP laboratory. They thank CONACYT for the grant CB-2017-2018-11813.