Alloying of silicon on Ti6Al4V using high-intensity pulsed plasma beams

Tianium and his alloys are widely used in medical applications, e.g. for artifical joints, dental prosthesis, teeth and so on. However, it these metals have to be coated with ceramic facing, some stability problems in the ceramic-titanium system arise due to the strong affinity of titanium to oxygen, which causes a reduction of the ceramic oxide. It is known that this reduction effect can be mitigated by alloying titanium or its alloys with a small amount of silicon using, e.g. an ion implantation technique. In the present work, we report the results of a new approach to alloying silicon to Ti6Al4V using high intensity pulsed plasma beams. The feasibility to from the silicide Ti5Si3 with grain size larger as 75 nm is demonstrated. This silicide has the highest melting point (2130 °C) among of all stable phases in the Si-Ti system.