Study the behaviour of Ti-Mo-xZr alloys during thermomechanical treatment

Titanium and its alloys became the master materials for bio-implants, possessing perfect stability inside the human body and excellent mechanical properties over traditional implant materials. Continuous development of commercial implant alloys, including Ti-6Al-4 V, results in approaching new Ti-alloys that are more biocompatible with the human body, replacing Al and V elements with vital alternatives. In this study, the influence of Zr addition to Ti–10Mo–xZr (x = 0, 3, 6 wt%) alloys during the thermomechanical processing on the phase stability, mechanical properties, and electrochemical behavior is investigated. Thermo-Calc software, which showed that Zr addition to Ti-10Mo reduces β-transus temperature and represents Zr as a β-stabilizer element. DSC experimental results agreed with the software calculations, approving Zr addition to minimize the α to β transformation temperature.XRD and SEM results revealed β phase as predominant in Ti–10Mo (94.6%) and Ti–10Mo–6Zr (82.3%), while Ti–10Mo–3Zr alloy exhibited (52.5%) α-phase, with non-linear phase evolution with Zr content due to the dual effect of element addition and thermomechanical processing. The elastic modulus ranged from 108.9 to 120.4 GPa, with Ti–10Mo–3Zr achieving the lowest modulus. The scoped alloys achieved high compressive ductility (> 60%), which gives a good mechanical computability. Electrochemical evaluation in simulated body fluid revealed composition-dependent corrosion behavior, where β-rich alloys demonstrated enhanced polarization resistance, while microgalvanic effects in the Ti-10Mo-3Zr alloy increased corrosion susceptibility. The corrosion rates in simulated body fluid are $$0.21843 \times \, 10^{ - 3}$$, $$4.5714 \times \, 10^{ - 3}$$, and $$0.642 \times \, 10^{ - 3}$$ mm/year for Ti-10Mo, Ti-10Mo-3Zr, and Ti-10Mo-6Zr alloys, respectively.