Open the hardest alloy – Popular Mechanics

Titanium is inert enough not to interact with living tissue and are not oxidized in the body, but sometimes it lacks strength. On average, titanium implants have to be replaced every 10 years due to wear. Therefore, the scientists for a long time there was a problem to find another, more durable and at the same time a biocompatible material.

Previous experiments with titanium alloys with silver and copper have shown good results, but researchers have suggested that if the use of the alloy metal, by properties similar to copper or silver, but with greater atomic mass, would be stronger alloy. The choice stopped on gold: it has long been used in prosthetics

The head of the study, Professor Emilia Morosan (Emilia Morosan) at Rice

University in Houston, Texas, said that the discovery was made in the study of magnets made of titanium and gold.. To check on the substance impurities, laboratory staff had to be obtained from samples of the metal powder. In the case of Ti3Au it failed: diamond float has not coped with the alloy
After a series of experiments were able to identify the ideal ratio of metals in the alloy.. The result is a metal four times more durable than those that are currently used in the production of prostheses.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances .