Biomedical TiNbZrTaSi alloys designed by d-electron alloy design theory

•Biomedical TiNbZrTaSi alloys were designed by d-electron alloy design theory.•The new ductile TiNbZrTaSi bulk alloys were fabricated by spark plasma sintering.•The ultrafine-grained composite structure contains β-Ti matrix and S2 phase.•The bulk alloys exhibit superplasticity, high strength and low modulus.

We report on the formation of ultrafine-grained (Ti69.71Nb23.72Zr4.83Ta1.74)100 − xSix (at.%, x = 0, 2 and 5) alloys designed by d-electron alloy design theory and fabricated by spark plasma sintering of nanocomposite powder precursor. The designed and fabricated alloys exhibit a high yield and fracture strength of 1296 MPa and 3263 MPa along with an ultra-large fracture strain of 65% under compression. Meanwhile, they display low elastic modulus of 37–48 GPa. The high-performance titanium alloys without toxic elements show high potential for application as biomaterials.

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