Production of highly porous titanium (Ti) scaffolds by vacuum-assisted foaming of titanium hydride (TiH_2) suspension

摘要

We produced highly porous titanium (Ti) scaffolds with large interconnected pores using vacuum-assisted foaming. To achieve this, a titanium hydride (TiH_2) suspension was vigorously foamed under reduced pressure, then rapidly frozen at - 70℃, and finally freeze dried to remove frozen ice. The resulting green samples were heat-treated in a vacuum at 400 ℃ for 2 h to remove the organic phases and then at 1300 ℃ for 2 h to density the Ti walls. Samples produced both with and without vacuum-assisted foaming showed good shape tolerance with a uniform porous structure. The samples produced using vacuum-assisted foaming had higher porosity (82 ± 1.3 vol%) and larger pore size (150 ± 65 μm), but lower compressive strength (8.9 ± 1.6 MPa).