Abstract :
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are fascinating materials, which have extensively been studied over the last three decades owing to their distinctive functional properties, such as shape memory effect (thermal memory),superelasticity (mechanical memory), etc. It is the reversibility of martensite to austenite transformation that gives rise to the shape change in SMAs. This is triggered either by heating (shape memory effect-SME) or unloading (superelastic effect-SE). These alloys find applications in various sectors and are in particular used as actuators and sensors. Among SMAs, NiTi-based alloys are more common and have proven their utility in many practical applications. However, there is ample scope for improvement of the alloys in terms of their shape memory characteristics if they are to be exploited in several other critical applications. In this context, addition of various transition metals proves to be appropriate to modify the transformation characteristics, corrosion behaviour and biocompatibility of NiTi SMAs. Hence, in this work varying amounts of Co, V, Cu and Ag were added as a third element to the binary Ni-Ti alloy and their influence were studied. Accordingly, NiTiCo, NiTiV, NiTiCu and NiTiAg alloys of appropriate compositions were synthesized by vacuum induction melting followed by subjecting them to suitable thermomechanical treatment. These alloys were then characterized by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and various microscopic techniques in order to study the influence of the alloying elements on the phases present, transformation temperatures and microstructure of the ternary NiTi SMAs.There has been a dearth of literature on hot deformation characteristics of such SMAs. This work therefore investigates the role of alloying elements on hot deformation characteristics of Ni–Ti SMAs.The corrosion characteristics of the alloys were studied to ascertain the optimum alloy composition for better corrosion resistance. Biocompatibility tests and antibacterial assays were also carried out so as to assess the cell viability and antibacterial resistance of the alloys developed. Elaborate results are presented and discussed in