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Comment on Lab discovers titanium-gold alloy that is four times harder than most steels

A_A@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Because titanium and gold by themselves are among the most biocompatible metals and are often used in medical implants, the team believed titanium-3-gold would be comparable.

Hum… titanium is biocompatible in part because it passivates extremely well while gold does exactly the opposite : it doesn’t react with oxygen. So, what happens when combining the two ? …

In fact, tests by colleagues at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston determined that the new alloy was even more biocompatible than pure titanium.

Ha ! Very good then 👍.

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HubertManne@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
what the heck is passivating?

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- A_A@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Passivation (chemistry)
  
  Passivation is the use of a light coat of a protective material, such as metal oxide, to create a shield against corrosion.
  
  Titanium, aluminum, chromium, nickel and many other metals passivates rapidly in the presence of oxygen and water.
  
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  - HubertManne@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Thank you. I enjoyed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivation_(chemistry). I don't see the opposite nature though as being to incongruous as the material that passivates does so such that it never really is utilized without its coating while the non passivating just never gets the coating. In both cases, in the state they are utilized, they are very unreactive.
    
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    A_A@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think I get what you say : if I take your words, you could say 2 metals are “opposite in nature” in the sense that they would form a galvanic couple as described billow.
    
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