Effect of molybdenum on structure, microstructure and mechanical properties of biomedical Ti-20Zr-Mo alloys

Titanium has an allotropic transformation around 883°C. Below this temperature, the crystalline structure is hexagonal close-packed (α phase), changing to body-centered cubic (β phase). Zirconium has the same allotropic transformation around 862°C. Molybdenum has body-centered cubic structure, being a strong β-stabilizer for the formation of titanium alloys. In this paper, the effect of substitutional molybdenum was analyzed on the structure, microstructure and selected mechanical properties of Ti-20Zr-Mo (wt%) alloys to be used in biomedical applications. The samples were prepared by arc-melting and characterized by x-ray diffraction with subsequent refinement by the Rietveld method, optical and scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties were analyzed by Vickers microhardness and dynamic elasticity modulus. X-ray measurements and Rietveld analysis revealed the presence of α' phase without molybdenum, α'+α″ phases with 2.5wt% of molybdenum, α″+β phases with 5 and 7.5wt% of molybdenum, and only β phase with 10wt% of molybdenum. These results were corroborated by microscopy results, with a microstructure composed of grains of β phase and lamellae and needles of α' and α″ phase in intra-grain the region. The hardness of the alloy was higher than the commercially pure titanium, due to the action of zirconium and molybdenum as hardening agents. The samples have a smaller elasticity modulus than the commercially pure titanium.