Overview of Tantalum

Tantalum, as a traditional refractory metal, is not only highly stable in its chemical properties, but also has good biocompatibility with human tissues. Tantalum metal does not irritate human muscle at all, nor does it hinder human muscle activities, therefore, tantalum metal is recognized by the medical community as the best biocompatible hard tissue implant material, which has been used in clinical applications for many years. With the development of medical technology level as well as material science, the clinical demand for medical tantalum metal implants has also been personalized. Powder bed 3D printing technology is an effective means to achieve personalized preparation of implants and has already achieved great success in the preparation of titanium implants. However, tantalum requires a high melting point of 2996°C, which is 1.8 times higher than that of titanium (1668°C); good thermal conductivity, with a thermal conductivity [57.5 W/(m.K)] that is 3.8 times higher than that of titanium, which poses a challenge for the selection of powder raw materials and the control of molding parameters, and thus the existing 3D printing of metallic tantalum remains at the research stage.