Development of single crystalline bone plate with low Young's modulus using beta-type Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al alloy

Abstract

New single crystalline bone plate that has extremely low Young's modulus was fabricated using an ISO certified biomedical material alloy with a composition of Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al in mass %. Single crystals of the Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al alloy along [001] direction were succeeded to be grown by using the seed crystal in order to develop the long bone plate along the [001] direction with the lowest Young's modulus. The ω phase with relatively high Young's modulus was not confirmed to precipitate in the single crystals at room temperature. Using the oriented single crystals, bone plate with dimensions of 42 × 5 × 1.5 mm3 and 8 holes for screws could be shaped to be along [001], which exhibit the superior low Young's modulus of ∼40 GPa comparable to that along the longitudinal bone axis. The developed single crystalline bone plate has a high potential for a clinical use in the orthopedic field.