On the Potential of Bulk Metallic Glasses for Dental Implantology: Case Study on Ti40Zr10Cu36Pd14

Abstract

Ti40Zr10Cu36Pd14 Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG) appears very attractive for future biomedical applications thanks to its high glass forming ability, the absence of toxic elements such as Ni, Al or Be and its good mechanical properties. For the first time, a complete and exhaustive characterization of a unique batch of this glassy alloy was performed, together with ISO standard mechanical tests on machined implant-abutment assemblies. The results were compared to the benchmark Ti-6Al-4V ELI (Extra-Low-Interstitial) to assess its potential in dental implantology. The thermal stability, corrosion and sterilization resistance, cytocompatibility and mechanical properties were measured on samples with a simple geometry, but also on implant-abutment assemblies’ prototypes. Results show that the glassy alloy exhibits a quite high thermal stability, with a temperature range of 38 °C between the glass transition and crystallization, a compressive strength of 2 GPa, a certain plastic deformation (0.7%), a hardness of 5.5 GPa and a toughness of 56 MPa.√m. Moreover, the alloy shows a relatively lower Young’s modulus (96 GPa) than the Ti-6Al-4V alloy (110–115 GPa), which is beneficial to limit bone stress shielding. The BMG shows a satisfactory cytocompatibility, a high resistance to sterilization and a good corrosion resistance (corrosion potential of −0.07 V/SCE and corrosion current density of 6.0 nA/cm2), which may ensure its use as a biomaterial. Tests on dental implants reveal a load to failure 1.5-times higher than that of Ti-6Al-4V and a comparable fatigue limit. Moreover, implants could be machined and sandblasted by methods usually conducted for titanium implants, without significant degradation of their amorphous nature. All these properties place this metallic glass among a promising class of materials for mechanically-challenging applications such as dental implants.

Nucleation instability in supercooled Cu–Zr–Al glass-forming liquids

“…Structural glasses, especially bulk metallic glasses (BMG), and supercooled liquids are in the shortlist of objects for study in modern chemistry and material science [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The reason is twofold: firstly, glasses have unique properties useful in industry, such as, corrosion resistance [10,11], high specific strength [1], good thermoplastic formability [12], excellent bio compatibility [13] and, secondly, many aspects of structural glass formation still need an explanation [1,2,14]. Classical molecular dynamics (MD) has become the main theoretical tool that allows investigating properties of supercooled liquids and glasses which are hardly available in experiments.…”

In Situ Synchrotron X‐Ray Diffraction Characterization of Corrosion Products of a Ti‐Based Metallic Glass for Implant Applications

“…%), via a subtractive machining route, routinely used in the dental implant industry. [5] In vivo studies have demonstrated that a similar alloy, Ti40Zr10Cu34Pd14Sn2, has equivalent bone integration and bonding ability to cp-Ti. [6] Conventional polarisation curves showed that alloys in the Ti-Zr-Cu-Pd-(Sn) family have excellent passivity in simulated physiological solutions and relatively high pitting resistance.…”

Near-Net Forming Complex Shaped Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses by High Pressure Die Casting

“…By using the strategies of filling the die in milliseconds and of solidification under high pressure, some hollow and thin-walled BMG parts, such as the earphone, are fabricated precisely using the EPV-HPDC process, and are displayed in Figure 7b,c. With regard to implant materials, the most common metals used are stainless steels, Co-Cr alloys, and titanium alloys [32]. BMGs are considered as a promising alternative type of material because of their outstanding mechanical properties, and corrosion and wear resistance [32].…”

“…With regard to implant materials, the most common metals used are stainless steels, Co-Cr alloys, and titanium alloys [32]. BMGs are considered as a promising alternative type of material because of their outstanding mechanical properties, and corrosion and wear resistance [32]. Previously, because of the lack of corresponding molding methods, the excellent properties of BMG were limited in biomedical applications.…”