Materials Science Forum, Vol.426-4, 3079-3084, 2003
Sintered porous titanium and titanium alloys as advanced biomaterials
Titanium (Ti) and Ti alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V are used for dental and medical implant materials. These alloys have excellent mechanical properties, but inferior to calcium phosphate such as hydroxyapatite (HAp) in biocompatibility. To improve the biocompatibility, surface modification of the calcium phosphate by chemical, physical or electro-chemical treatments were applied and employed in clinical devices. Porous titanium can extremely improve activity of the modification by the HAp. Sintered porous titanium compacts, which have continuous pores, were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Three different grain size of Ti powders (250, 150 and 45 mum under) and titanium alloy powders (Ti-6Al-4V; 150 mum under) were employed to arrange the sintered specimens. The powders of pure Ti and Ti alloy were sintered by SPS in the carbon dies to the shape, respectively. To evaluate the degree of sintering by SPS process, the sintered specimens were annealed at 1000degreesC for 24 hours in an evacuated furnace. Compressive stress-strain curve of the annealed specimens were measured, and compared with that of the specimens by SPS. The sintered compacts were immersed in simulated body fluid and evaluate the biocompatibility. Calcium and phosphate ions were precipitated as HAp crystals on the sintered particles. Because HAp is a main component of bone structure, functional proteins are expected to impregnate with the precipitated HAp crystals. It was concluded that the developed titanium compact is an advanced biomaterial both with excellent mechanical properties and good biocompatibility.
Keywords:titanium;sintering;surface modification;calcium phosphate;hydroxyapatite;biomimetic coating