Phase Stability and Mechanical Properties of Metastable Ti-X-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) Alloys

Metastable beta Ti-Cr-Sn-Zr alloys used as biomaterial show low Young’s modulus and super-elasticity according to the phase stability of their beta phase. In this study, we substituted Nb and Fe for Cr in metastable beta Ti-2Cr-6Sn-45Zr alloy and investigated their effect. We investigated how the added amount of Cr, Nb and Fe influences the phase stability and the properties of low Young’s modulus and super-elasticity in Ti-x-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) alloys. The Young’s modulus of a Ti-x-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) alloy decreases with the addition of Cr, Nb or Fe. However, the Young’s modulus of a Ti-x-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) alloy increases with the addition of Cr, Nb or Fe after showing own minimum value respectively. Minimum Young’s modulus of several Ti-x-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) alloys were under 50GPa. The required amount of Cr, Nb or Fe in the Ti-x-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) alloy having minimum Young’s modulus is different according to the beta stabilizing ability of each element. Fe amounts were the smallest and Nb amounts were the largest. Ti-x-Sn-Zr (x=Cr, Nb or Fe) alloy with minimum Young’s modulus shows a stress-induced martensitic transformation. However, only Ti-Cr-Sn-Zr alloys showed definite super-elasticity. The recovered strain by super-elasticity is small in Ti-Nb-Sn-Zr alloy. Ti-Fe-Sn-Zr alloy didn’t show super-elasticity or large elongation.