Effect of sintering temperature on structure and tribological properties of nanostructured Ti–15Mo alloy for biomedical applications

Abstract The effect of sintering temperature (1073–1373 K) on the structural and tribological properties of nanostructured ball-milled β-type Ti–15Mo samples was investigated. The prepared samples were characterized using various apperatus such as X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and ball-on-plate type oscillating tribometer. Wear tests were conducted under different applied loads (2, 8 and 16 N). Structural results showed that the mean pore and crystallite size continuously decreased with increasing sintering temperature to reach the lowest values of 4 nm and 29 nm at 1373 K, respectively. The relative density of the sintered sample at 1373 K was as high as 97.0%. Moreover, a higher sintering temperature resulted in higher relative density, greater hardness and elastic modulus of the sample. It was observed that both the friction coefficient and wear rate were lower in the sample sintered at 1373 K which was attributed to the closed porosity.