A perspective biocompatible hyperelastic innovative allay Ti-Zr (Titanium-Zirconium) with shape memory effect has been created at the MEPhI Department “Physical problems of materials science”.

New allay has a significant advantage over the precedent Titanium-Nickel one. The resultant material can be used in a wider operating range in relation to improved mechanical properties. Titanium and Zirconium unlike Nickel have the highest corrosion resistance properties. Ti-Zr can also be used in medicine because it doesn’t provoke allergic reactions and has no tumor response. In stomatology Titanium-Zirconium usage significantly simplifies dental crowns’ installation.

Titanium-Zirconium has such original properties as hyperelasticity and shape memory effect. Hyperelasticity is a metal material ability of reversible deformation which is several orders greater than their change to yield limit. Titanium-Zirconium is a rubbery metal. For example, an article can be plastically deformed, and then watch it getting initial shape at increasing temperatures. Or, vice versa, when a satellite is put on the orbit, solar array deployment happens at negative temperatures due to the shape memory effect.

Ti-Zr allay can be used in reactors. Depending on different temperature conditions, Titanium-Zirconium ratio can be varied in the allay without a significant loss of unique properties. Nickel couldn’t be used in nuclear power engineering because shape memory effect properties in Ti-Ni have degraded under neutron radiation. New material will give an opportunity to create better protection technologies in nuclear accidents.