31 research outputs found
Fabrication, mechanical properties and in vitro degradation behavior of newly developed ZnAg alloys for degradable implant applications
No full textZn and Zn-based alloys have been recognized as highly promising biodegradable materials for orthopedic implants and cardiovascular stents, due to their proved biocompatibility and, more importantly, lower corrosion rates compared to Mg alloys. However, pure Zn has poor mechanical properties. In this study, Ag is used as a promising alloying element to improve the mechanical properties of the Zn matrix as well as its biocompatibility and antibacterial properties. Accordingly, we design three ZnAg alloys with Ag content ranging from 2.5 to 7.0wt% and investigate the influence of the Ag content on mechanical and corrosion behavior of the alloys. The alloys are developed by casting process and homogenized at 410°C for 6h and 12h, followed by hot extrusion at 250°C with extrusion ratio of 14:1. Degradation behavior is assessed by electrochemical and static immersion tests in Hank's modified solution. Microstructural analysis reveals that hot extrusion significantly reduces the grain size of the alloys. Zn-7.0%Ag alloy shows a reasonably equiaxed and considerably refined microstructure with mean grain size of 1.5μm. Tensile tests at room temperature suggest that increasing the Ag content steadily enhances the tensile strength, while it does not affect the tensile ductility significantly. Zn-7.0%Ag shows high yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of 236MPa and 287MPa, respectively, which is due to the grain refinement and high volume fraction of fine AgZn3 particles precipitating along the grain boundaries during the extrusion process. Among all these alloys, Zn-7.0%Ag displayed superplasticity over a wide range of strain rates (from 5×10(-4)s(-1) to 1.0×10(-2)s(-1)) providing the possibility of exploiting forming processes at rapid rates and/or even at lower temperatures. In addition, extruded alloys exhibit slightly faster degradation rate than pure Zn. X-ray diffraction results show the presence of ZnO and Zn(OH)2 on the degraded surfaces. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy imaging reveals that micro-galvanic corrosion is more pronounced on the alloys with higher Ag content due to the higher volume fraction of AgZn3 particles. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Origin of improved tunability and loss in N2 annealed barium strontium titanate films
No full textBarium strontium titanate (BSTO) thin films were deposited on Pt(111) by high throughput evaporative physical vapor deposition and then annealed at 650 °C for 30 min under N2 atmosphere. Using advanced transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy, we directly show that not only does N substitute for O in the BSTO lattice but that it also compensates for Ti3+ ions, suppressing conductivity, thereby reducing dielectric loss and enhancing dielectric tunability. However, this effect is negated near the film edge where we speculate that exposed Pt acts as a reservoir of adsorbed/absorbed O and alters the local N2 concentration during annealing
Processability of pure Zn and pure Fe by SLM for biodegradable metallic implant manufacturing
No full textPurpose
This work investigates the processability by selective laser melting of materials of potential interest for innovative biodegradable implants, pure Fe and pure Zn. The processability of these materials is evaluated with a more established counterpart in permanent implants, stainless steel. In particular, the processing conditions were studied to reduce porosity due to incomplete fusion of the powder.
Design/methodology/approach
In the first phase of the experiments, SLM of AISI 316L was studied through design of experiments method. The study was used to identify the significant parameters in the experimental range and estimate the fluence ranges for pure Fe and pure Zn using the lumped heat capacity model. In the second phase, SLM of pure Fe and pure Zn were studied using estimated fluence ranges. In the final phase, best conditions were characterized for mechanical properties.
Findings
The results showed that complete melting of AISI 316L and pure Fe could be readily achieved, whereas laser melting generated a foam-like porous structure in Zn samples. The mechanical properties of laser melt implant materials were compared to as-cast and rolled counterparts. Laser melted AISI 316L showed superior mechanical performance compared to as-cast and rolled material whereas Fe showed mechanical performance similar to rolled mild steel. Despite 12% apparent porosity, laser melted Zn exhibited superior mechanical properties compared to as cast and wrought material due to reduced grain size.
Originality/value
The paper provides key processing knowledge on the SLM processability of new biodegradable metals namely pure Fe, which has been studied sparingly; and on pure Zn, on which no previous work is available. The results prefigure the production of new biodegradable metallic implants with superior mechanical properties compared to their polymeric counterparts and with improved degradation rates compared to magnesium alloys, the reference material for biodegradable metals
Novel Zn-based alloys for biodegradable stent applications: Design,development and in vitro degradation
No full textThe search for a degradable metal simultaneously showing mechanical properties equal or higher to that of stainless steel and uniform degradation is still an open challenge. Several magnesium-based alloys have been studied, but their degradation rate has proved to be too fast and rarely homogeneous. Fe-based alloys show appropriate mechanical properties but very low degradation rate. In the present work, four novel Zn–Mg and two Zn–Al binary alloys were investigated as potential biodegradable materials for stent applications. The alloys were developed by casting process and homogenized at 350 °C for 48 h followed by hot extrusion at 250 °C. Tube extrusion was performed at 300 °C to produce tubes with outer/inner diameter of 4/1.5 mm as precursors for biodegradable stents. Corrosion tests were performed using Hanks׳ modified solution. Extruded alloys exhibited slightly superior corrosion resistance and slower degradation rate than those of their cast counterparts, but all had corrosion rates roughly half that of a standard purity Mg control. Hot extrusion of Zn–Mg alloys shifted the corrosion regime from localized pitting to more uniform erosion, mainly due to the refinement of second phase particles. Zn–0.5Mg is the most promising material for stent applications with a good combination of strength, ductility, strain hardening exponent and an appropriate rate of loss of mechanical integrity during degradation. An EBSD analysis in the vicinity of the laser cut Zn–0.5Mg tube found no grain coarsening or texture modification confirming that, after laser cutting, the grain size and texture orientation of the final stent remains unchanged. This work shows the potential for Zn alloys to be considered for stent applications
Development and characterization of a novel high entropy alloy strengthened through concurrent spinodal decomposition and precipitation
No full textStrengthening mechanisms, which are commonly exploited by conventional alloys, can be effectively incorporated in high entropy alloys (HEAs) to improve their mechanical behaviour. In this light, compositional modification of equiatomic HEAs can be pursued in order to obtain specific microstructural features. Herein, a face centred cubic CoCuFeMnNi alloy was modified by the addition of a proper amount of Ti; a dedicated thermal treatment allowed to concurrently activate two different phase formation mechanisms, i.e. precipitation and spinodal decomposition. This resulted in a nanostructured microstructure, characterized by the presence of periodic modulations of Cu content and by nanosized coherent L12 Ni3Ti precipitates. Such microstructure resulted in a more than 100 % increase of yield strength after ageing treatment and allowed to retain a satisfactory ductility. Advanced microstructural characterization, coupled with the application of semi-empirical models allowed to understand the role of each microstructural feature in determining the alloy’s mechanical strength
Characterising oxygen atoms in perovskite and pyrochlore oxides using ADF-STEM at a resolution of a few tens of picometers
No full textAtomic structure study of pyrochlore ytterbium titanate
No full textThere has been great interest in the magnetic behaviour of pyrochlore oxides with the general formula A2B2O7, in which rare-earth (A), and transition metal (B) cations are ordered on separate interpenetrating lattices of corner-sharing tetrahedra. Such materials exhibit behaviours including quantum spin-ice, (quantum) spin-liquid, and ordered magnetic ground states. Yb2Ti2O7 lies on the boundary between a number of competing magnetic ground states. Features in the low-temperature specific heat capacity that vary in sharpness and temperature from sample to sample suggest that in some cases the magnetic moments order, while in others the moments remain dynamic down to temperatures as low as ~16 mK. In this work, three different Yb2Ti2O7 single crystal samples, all grown by the optical floating zone technique but exhibiting quite different heat capacity behaviour, are studied by aberration-corrected scanning transmission microscopy (STEM). Atomic-scale energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis shows that a crystal with no specific heat anomaly has substitution of Yb atoms on Ti sites (“stuffing"). In fact, EDX analysis shows for the first time that “stuffing” of Yb (A) cations onto Ti (B) sites in the lattice can be observed directly in the pyrochlore structure. Moreover, I show that the detailed intensity distribution around the visible atom columns in annular dark field STEM images is sensitive to the presence of nearby atoms of low atomic number (in this case oxygen) and find significant differences between the samples that correlates both with their magnetic behaviour and measurements of Ti oxidation state using electron energy loss spectroscopy. These measurements support the view that the magnetic ground state of Yb2Ti2O7 is extremely sensitive to disorder. On the other hand, structural modification of ytterbium titanate by deviation from stoichiometry as well as electron irradiation is studied in this work. I show that Ti excess is accommodated by Yb cation vacancies while Yb excess is compensated by Yb interstitials. Furthermore, two MATLAB programs, Detect Columns and BurgersVectors, to analyse STEM images and calculate the dislocation density tensor of STEM images as well as their Burgers vector(s) are respectively introduced in this work
(Ba, Sr)(Ti, Mn)O3 Perovskite Films for Co-Planar Waveguide Tunable Microwave Phase Shifters
No full textBaxSr1-xTiyMn1-yO 3 BSTO thin films have been synthesized using a molecular beam epitaxy system. Novel coplanar waveguide tunable phase shifters have been developed using these Mn-doped perovskite films. The presented phase shifters operate with a phase shift angle of 12 degrees at 10GHz. at an applied bias of 10V on an area smaller than 1mm 2 , Insertion loss of ~3.2 dB is extracted from the S-parameter measurement. Small changes of composition lead to a significant variation of device phase shift, demonstrating the importance of synthesizing suitable structure BSTO film
