Microstructure of interface regions and mechanical properties of Ti/Al 2O 3 and Ti-alloy/Al 2O 3 joints for dental implants.

Titanium and alumina are very well suited as constituents of dental metal/ceramic implants because of their excellent biocompatibility and their special chemical and mechanical properties which can be exploited to tailor composite implant structures. However, prior attempts to join pure titanium without any intermediate layer to alumina ceramic led to unsatisfactory results mainly due to thermal expansion mismatch between both materials. Therefore we used recently developed Ti alloys containing 30%wt Ta or 40%wt Nb for manufacturing dental implants. Moreover, we studied two alternative methods to join pure titanium with alumina using intermediate layers to reduce internal stresses within the joint caused by thermal expansion mismatch. We examined the interface region of these joints by metallographic, mechanical, analytical, and electron microscopy methods. Additionally, a comparison of the properties of the hitherto investigated types of joints with a view of their applicability in dental implants is given. Promising results were obtained for Ti/alumina joints with Nb interlayers. The studies are continuing.