Effects of Severe Plastic Deformation on Advanced Biomaterials for Biomedical Applications: A Brief Overview

In the last years, nanostructured metals prepared by severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques have emerged as a promising class of advanced biomaterials for load-bearing applications such as orthopedic implants. This is mainly because of the simultaneous improvements in mechanical and biocompatibility properties during the creation of nanostructures. This article provides a brief overview of the effects of SPD techniques in producing nano/ultrafine-grained structures in advanced biomaterials for implant applications. The role of microstructure refinement achieved by SPD and its effect on mechanical properties and biocompatibility, together with processing challenges are reviewed. As advanced biomaterials, pure titanium, and Ti-based alloys which possess a broad range of applications in the biomedical industry are initially discussed. Further, the recent results on high-entropy alloys and metal-protein composites obtained by means of SPD for biomedical purposes are reviewed. The results discussed here clearly demonstrate the beneficial effects of SPD techniques in designing and producing nanostructured advanced biomaterials with exceptional mechanical and functional properties desired for implants.