Micromechanical Measurements and Biocompatibility of the High Porosity Ti Scaffold Made with Saccharose as a Space Holder

Abstract

The paper presents mechanical properties of the porous Ti scaffold made with saccharose as a space holder. The Ti scaffolds had the porosity of 50, 60 and 70% and were made using 100 and 325 mesh Ti as a scaffold material. The pores were established using saccharose spherical space holder particles of 0.7–0.9 mm in diameter. The local mechanical properties of the Ti scaffold have been measured using nanoindenter. Several loading-unloading characteristics of the thin scaffold walls in the microscale have been measured. It has been observed that Ti scaffolds have very high mechanical properties measured in the microscale that are correlated with partial scaffold oxidation and a formation of TiO2, which took place during the production stages. The scaffold is composed mainly of Ti oxide and the structure has been identified by XRD as well as XPS. The highest mechanical properties have scaffolds composed of 100 mesh Ti particles, compared to 325 mesh Ti. The microscale tests measurements are rather slightly affected by the pore presence and are under influence of Ti particles. The MTT test shows slightly higher proliferation of NHost cells on porous Ti scaffold in comparison to the reference Ti sample.