The surface of medical zirconium alloy is composed of oxide ceramic layer with micron thickness, mainly composed of monoclinic zirconia and a little tetragonal zirconia. The matrix is zirconium alloy, and the specific components are as follows: Zr 76.5 ~ 100wt. %, Nb 0 ~ 19wt. %, Hf 0 ~ 4.5wt. %, and the rest are unavoidable trace impurities. There is also an oxygen-rich transition layer between the oxide ceramic layer and the matrix alloy, that is, oxygen is dissolved in the matrix to form zirconium oxygen solid solution. The invention combines plastic deformation technology with high temperature oxidation technology to prepare medical zirconium alloy whose surface hardness, wear resistance and alloy strength are greatly improved. Therefore, it has a wide application prospect in biomedicine, especially in biomedical implants.
Generally speaking, metal materials have the characteristics of high strength, high toughness and easy processing, and are often used to make medical implant materials with complex structure and load bearing. Among them, the representative medical implant materials include stainless steel, cobalt-chromium alloy, titanium and titanium alloy, zirconium alloy, etc. However, the main disadvantage of metal materials as medical implant materials is that during long-term use, harmful metal ions are released under the action of body fluids, which leads to the inflammation of the tissues around the joint and the loosening of the joint, ultimately leading to the failure of the implant. In addition, due to the low surface hardness of metal materials, the wear resistance of metal materials is relatively poor. In the long-term implantation process, due to the relative sliding between joints, the joint surface is severely worn, resulting in the loosening of the implanted joints and the ultimate implantation failure. At the same time, a large number of granular shoulder abrades are easy to react with human cells and tissues, and have adverse effects on the human body.
