Microstructure, Mechanical Property and Biocompatibility of Porous Ti-Nb-Zr Alloys Fabricated by Rapid Sintering using Space Holder

Abstract

Space holder method can easily control Young’s modulus due to control the pore size, distribution and shape. In this study, porous Ti-Nb-Zr biomaterial which is not included poison elements was successfully fabricated by powder metallurgy using space holder of NH4HCO3 and foaming agent of TiH2. The consolidation of powder was conducted by spark plasma sintering process (SPS) at 850 °C under 30MPa conditions. The effect of space holder contents on pore size and distribution of Ti-Nb-Zr alloys was observed by optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). As a result of microstructure observation, a lot of pore was uniformly distributed in the sintered Ti-Nb-Zr alloys. Cell cultivation experiments were conducted using cell cultivation experimental. The porous Ti-Nb-Zr alloys were fabricated successfully with 30% pore ratio and 50-60GPa of Young’s modulus. Biocompatibility of porous Ti-Nb-Zr alloys is similar to Ti-6Al-4V alloy.