Fatigue characteristics of bioactive glass-ceramic-coated Ti-29Nb-13Ta-4.6Zr for biomedical application

A new surface-coating method by which CaP invert glass is used to improve the bioactivity of titanium alloys has been developed recently. In this method, the powder of CaP invert glass (CaO-P2O5-TiO2-Na2O) is coated on the surface of titanium alloy samples and heated between 1073 and 1123 K. With this treatment, a calcium phosphate layer mainly containing beta-Ca3(PO4)2 phase can be coated easily on titanium alloy samples. In the present study, the effect of this coating process on the fatigue properties of Ti-29Nb-13Ta-4.6Zr, a new metastable beta alloy for biomedical applications, has been investigated. The fatigue endurance limit of the coated alloy was found to be about 15% higher than that of uncoated alloy, as a result of the formation of a hard (alpha + beta) layer and a small amount of the omega phase during the coating process. The coating exhibits excellent adhesion to the substrate during the tensile and fatigue tests. Subsequent ageing at 673 K for 259.2 ks greatly improves the fatigue resistance of the coated alloy due to isothermal omega phase precipitation, and does not have obvious detrimental effect on the coating properties.