Design And Evaluation Of Novel Open-Pore Titanium Foams

Abstract

Porous titanium (Ti) materials have a variety of applications including hydrogen storage, electrodes, catalysts, catalyst supports, structural sandwich cores, and orthopedic and dental implants. In the present study, novel open-pore titanium foams have been developed using camphene to freeze-cast titanium powders, followed by camphene sublimation and sintering under medium vacuum. Commercially-pure titanium (cp-titanium) powders, -60+100 mesh 99.5% pure and -325mesh 99% pure, were freeze-cast with camphene in volumetric ratios of titanium:camphene of 2:3, 1:1, and 3:2, and sintered post-camphene-sublimation at 925°C for 18, 24, 30, and 36 hours. This work describes the synthesis, characterization of the mechanical properties and microstructure of these materials, and compares their properties to the mechanical characteristics of bone and ideal pore size and structure for porous orthopedic and dental materials to determine their potential as orthopedic materials. The mean elastic modulus for the foams made from -325mesh cp-titanium powders range from 315MPa to 4.37GPa, and the mean compressive strength for these same foams range from 10.21MPa to 464.91MPa. The mean elastic modulus for the foams made from -60+100mesh titanium powders range from 91.18MPa to 477MPa and the mean compressive strength ranges from 6.11MPa to 43.35MPa.