The Influence of Small Quantities of Oxygen in the Structure, Microstructure, Hardness, Elasticity Modulus and Cytocompatibility of Ti-Zr Alloys for Dental Applications

The mechanical properties of Ti alloys are changed significantly with the addition of interstitial elements, such as oxygen. Because oxygen is a strong stabilizer of the α phase and has an effect on hardening in a solid solution, it has aroused great interest in the biomedical area. In this paper, Ti-Zr alloys were subjected to a doping process with small amounts of oxygen. The influence of interstitial oxygen in the structure, microstructure and some selected mechanical properties of interest for use as biomaterial and biocompatibility of the alloys were analyzed. The results showed that in the range of 0.02 wt% to 0.04 wt%, oxygen has no influence on the structure, microstructure or biocompatibility of the studied alloys, but causes hardening of the alloys, increasing the values of the microhardness and causing variation in the elasticity modulus values.