Development and characterization of titanium alloy foams

Abstract

Titanium has excellent mechanical properties, a low density and bio-compatibility features. Titanium foam is an attractive material for structural and biomedical applications. Because of these properties and applications we have tried to produce titanium foam from titanium alloy (Al 3Ti). In this paper, the Slurry Method is selected to produce the titanium foam, in which sintering is the most critical process. The foam will be considered to have properties of titanium foam only after the sintering process. The titanium slurry is prepared by mixing Titanium Alloy Powder, Polyethylene Glycol (PEG), Methylcellulose and water. Then, the Polyurethane (PU) foam is impregnated in the slurry and dried at room temperature. This is later sintered in a high temperature vacuum furnace with different sintering temperature. The effects of sintering on the prepared titanium foam are quantified by measuring the sintering and soaking time as well as the rate of heating. All these parameters are fixed to make sure the results are consistent. The titanium foam is characterised by using a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Carbon Hydrogen Nitrogen Sulfur (CHNS) element analysis. The range of pore size obtained is between 388µm to 1.07mm, with the strut size in the range of 59.4µm to 227µm. The element in the sample was only Carbon. In the present study, highly porous titanium foams with porosities up to 80% were produced by using slurry method. The highest compressive strength is 14.85 MPa for sample that be sintered at 1250°C This titanium foams can be use as the scaffold for bone tissue engineering or porous coating on implants.