Experimental Investigation of FGM Dental Implant Properties Made from Ti/HA Composite

Although titanium/hydroxyapatite composite is an attractive material for dental implants, it would be more useful if it could be produced as a functionally graded material (FGM). In this paper, microstructure and microhardness of a five-layer titanium/hydroxyapatite functionally graded material has been investigated. First, titanium and hydroxyapatite (HA) powders were mixed with the Ti to HA volume ratios of 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 60:40. Next, the obtained powders were poured into a graphite mold functionally and then sintered using spark plasma sintering (SPS) method. Microhardness and microstruc-ture of the samples was examined using Vickers microhardness test and optical microsco-py. The results show that HA particles have an acceptable distribution in the matrix. Also, average matrix grain size increased in Ti/HA composites compared to the pure Ti layer. Moreover, the layers with 30 and 40 vol% HA have the highest and the lowest microhard-ness, respectively.