Spark plasma sintered Ti6Al4V-ZrO2 bio-composites: optimization of ball milling and turbula mixing of powders and their subsequent sintering parameters

The use of Ti6Al4V as a biomaterial has been limited due to the dissociation of V and Al ions into the surrounding environment which can cause inflammations, cell damage and toxicity. To prohibit these undesirable challenges, the addition of ZrO₂ into Ti6Al4V was proposed because ZrO2 is biocompatible, it has good wear and corrosion resistant properties, it has low affinity to bacterial colonization and it has high fracture toughness. The aim of this work is to determine the optimum powder synthesising parameters by Tubular mixer and ball mill for fabrication of sintered composites. Powder mixtures were prepared by 49 rpm, 72 rpm and 74rpm for 2, 4 and 8 hours followed by spark plasma sintering at 1100°C at heating rate of 100°C/min for 10 min and pressure of 50 MPa. from the results obtained it was discovered that Tubular mixing of 90 Vol% Ti6Al4V and 10 Vol% ZrO₂ at 72 rpm and ball milling of 90 Vol% Ti6Al4V and 10 Vol% ZrO₂ at 74rpm speed have proved to produce homogeneous admixed powders, which can further produce fully dense SPS compacts with higher microhardness values. (paper)