Designing a toxic-element-free Ti-based amorphous alloy with remarkable supercooled liquid region for biomedical application

A series of toxic-element-free Ti-Zr-Ta-Si amorphous alloy ribbons have been successfully prepared by melt-spinning. The differential scanning carlorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction analysis, bending test and microhardness test are conducted for studying the thermal and mechanical properties. The results show that the Ti₄₂Zr₄₀Ta₃Si ₁₅ metallic glass ribbon present excellent ductile behavior by the bending testing, without any fracture cracking after bending over 180 degree. In addition, this amorphous alloy possesses a very high glass transition and crystallization temperature of 799 and 898 K, respectively, as well as a very wide supercooled liquid region of 99 K. This amorphous alloy exhibits promising thermal stability during isothermal annealing at the middle temperature of its supercooled region, with more than 3000 s incubation time for isothermal annealing at 823 K (550 °C). This amorphous alloy also shows much lower value of corrosion current density (2.27 × 10^-9 A/m ²) than the 304 stainless steel in the 0.3 mass% sodium cloride solutions. This Ti₄₂Zr₄₀Ta₃Si₁₅ alloy is believed to be a promising based alloy for fabricating the bulk metallic glass foam by the spacer technique in the application of biomedical implants.