Abstract
In this work, porous titanium (Ti) foams were successfully produced using spark plasma sintering technique at four different temperatures (up to 650 °C), in conjunction with vacuum sintering (used as a post-treatment) at a constant temperature of 1200 °C. To obtain a porous structure, 60 vol% of sodium chloride was included as a pore spacer, with the addition of polyethylene glycol solution for Ti–NaCl interparticle binding. The work aimed at studying the effect of sintering temperature on the final pore features and compression resistance of the porous titanium foams. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy as characterization techniques were used to analyze phases and pore evolutions, respectively. The results showed that the pore characteristics and the final porosity of porous titanium foams profoundly depend on the sintering temperature. The lowest porosity of approximately 53.9 vol%, with denser pore walls, was seen at the highest sintering temperature. Such foams sintered at 650 °C can resist the compression stress as high as 123 MPa while exhibiting the stiffness value of 8.1 GPa. The results indicate that the porous Ti foams produced have great potential for applications in hard tissue engineering.
Highlights
The need for distinct properties such as resistance to corrosion, excellent biocompatibility, adequate strength, lightweight, low stiffness, etc. has enforced the choice of titanium-based materials for implant fabrications
This study precisely aims to examine the effect of spark plasma sintering (SPS) temperature on the final pore characteristics and compression resistance of the porous titanium foams
The foams are developed using a two-step sintering: spark plasma sintering—vacuum sintering, with NaCl particles used as space holders
Summary
The need for distinct properties such as resistance to corrosion, excellent biocompatibility, adequate strength, lightweight, low stiffness, etc. has enforced the choice of titanium-based materials for implant fabrications. Concerns still subsist as the reported stiffness values of titanium materials are relatively high (≥ 45 GPa) compared to that of the human cortical bone (20–30 GPa). Such mismatches should be avoided to prevent the phenomenon of stress-shielding, which usually results in adverse effects such as bone resorption around the implant, premature revisions, etc. In addition to stiffness mismatch, most of the implants in the market are usually used as dense solid parts that most often lack the ability to attach to the host bone coherently To counteract such implant problems, there is a broad interest in directing the research effort on developing low stiffness porous implants [1, 2]. Lascano et al [4] reported the compressive strength of sintered
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