Processing and characterization of porous titanium for orthopedic implant prepared by argon-atmospheric sintering and arc plasma sintering

Porous titanium is proposed to be an effective orthopedic implant with a lower elastic modulus and supports osseointegration during implantation. To produce porous titanium, powder metallurgy (PM) assisted with a space-holder is used in this study. Pure titanium is used as the starting material, and salt (NaCl) is used as the space-holder. Argon-atmospheric sintering and arc plasma sintering (APS) methods are applied for the sintering process. NaCl content was varied from 0-40 wt%. The temperature sintering was at 1100 °C for the argon-atmospheric sintering, and the current process was at 75 A for the APS. The formation of pores, total porosity, pore distribution, phase formation, and mechanical properties were examined by the optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and compression testing. Titanium with the addition of 20 wt% of NaCl is shown to be a potential biomaterial for the orthopedic implant, having a porosity of 38-39%, the elastic modulus of 3.2-5 GPa, and the yield strength of 141-150 MPa (argon-atmospheric sintering and APS) which shown to be similar to the properties of cortical bone.