EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Ti-Cu based metallic glass Ti47Cu38Zr7.5Fe2.5Si1Sn2Ag2 at% with biocompatible elements was selected with better glass forming ability due to the selection of good glass formers and mechanical properties with lower young’s modulus 100GPa[1]. Modifications to the existing combinations was made to develop a master alloy with Ti42Cu40Zr8.5Fe2.5Si2Sn2Ag3 at% composition and the alloy ingot was Arc melted in Argon atmosphere. The phase composition, microstructure and thermal properties of the alloy was characterised by XRD, SEM and DSC respectively. The master alloy was then melt spun to form metallic glass ribbons with thickness of 50µm and width of 10mm. The ribbon samples were dealloyed using chemical and electrochemical approach in 14 M HNO3 solution to produce nanoporous TiO2 on the sample surface. From the previous studies it is known that TiO2 possess antibacterial properties[2]. In this study we optimized suitable parameters like temperature, potential, electrolyte concentration and time for producing nanoporous structure on ribbon sample. The surface morphology and crystallinity of dealloyed samples were studied using SEM and XRD. Wettability test was performed to understand the surface chemistry of the dealloyed sample. The sample shows potential application as implant material and can prevent cases of implant rejection in patient’s body due to high stress shielding effect and biofilm formation.

[1] S. Pang, Y. Liu, H. Li, L. Sun, Y. Li, and T. Zhang, “New Ti-based Ti – Cu – Zr – Fe – Sn – Si – Ag bulk metallic glass for biomedical applications,” J. Alloys Compd., vol. 625, pp. 323–327, 2015.

[2] A. Besinis, S. D. Hadi, H. R. Le, C. Tredwin, and R. D. Handy, “Antibacterial activity and biofilm inhibition by surface modified titanium alloy medical implants following application of silver, titanium dioxide and hydroxyapatite nanocoatings,” Nanotoxicology, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 327–338, 2017.