Research on zirconium alloys with low elastic modulus and low magnetic susceptibility for improving bone resorption and susceptibility artifacts / 대한치과재료학회지

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to fabricate Zr-Cu alloys with low elastic modulus and low magnetic susceptibility for the use as the dental biomaterials. Metallic implants, such as stainless steel, Co-Cr alloys, and Ti alloys, could be magnetized in the strong magnetic field of the MRI instrument and produce artifacts (magnetic susceptibility artifacts) on the image. The areas that cause the artifacts on images are closely related to the magnetic susceptibility. This susceptibility artifact is caused by metals, such as Ti, Co, and stainless steels, inside the body. Therefore, metallic implants with a low magnetic susceptibility are preferable for surgery performed with the assistance of an MRI. Recently, Zr-based alloys have been attracting interests as biomaterials due to their excellent mechanical properties and low magnetic susceptibility. The magnetic susceptibility of Zr-Nb was half that of Ti-6Al-4V. In addition, the magnetic susceptibility of Zr-Mo was reported almost one-third that of commercially pure Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy.However, there are limited reports concerning metallic biomaterials with low magnetic susceptibility for dental applications. The magnetic susceptibility of the Zr-Cu binary alloys was extremely low, approximately 10-7 ; this level is approximately one order less than that of pure Zr and other commercialized Ti-based metallic biomaterials. The Zr-Cu binary alloy exhibited moderate compressive strength (1261~1565 MPa), yield stress (432~595 MPa), favorable elongation (14~34%), high elastic energy (7.2~19.3 MJ/㎥ ) and low elastic modulus (20~28 GPa). Consequently, Zr-Cu binary alloys have the potential to be used as biomaterials with nullifying magnetic properties for magnetic resonance imaging diagnosis and a good combination of mechanical properties indicates them potential biomaterials for biological hard tissue materials