Synthesis and Characterization of Ti-foam Using NaCl as Space Holder

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys are widely used in medical implant industries due to their unique structure, excellent mechanical properties, low density, high chemical resistance and excellent biocompatibility. Porous titanium inherits the excellent mechanical and biological properties of titanium. Porous titanium i.e. Ti foams potentially use as functional and structural material for making implants as this structure provides lower young modulus and provides better cellular attachment. In the present studies, titanium NaCl syntactic foam was prepared by varying the size of NaCl particles by powder metallurgy route. In order to ensure sufficient handling strength in cold compacted pallets, 5 wt % of PVA solution (10 wt % PVA dissolved in water) was mixed with the mixture of Titanium and NaCl particles prior to cold compaction. Pressure less conventional sintering was carried out at 800 ºC and 1200 ºC for 2, 4 and 6 hours. The microstructural and morphological analysis was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and phase purity by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The effects of NaCl particle size, sintering time and temperature were also studied in details. The Ti-NaCl syntactic foam thus produced in this process is found to be an effective process for implant material fabrication.