GRADED POROUS TITANIUM SCAFFOLDS FABRICATED USING POWDER METALLURGY TECHNIQUE

Abstract

Graded porous titanium scaffolds with a pore size of 300–400 µm are prepared by sintering. Their mechanical properties and porosity are investigated. Compared with common titanium scaffolds, the mechanical properties of graded specimens can be improved by introducing graded structure. The graded porous titanium scaffold consists of inner, middle , and outer layers. When the outer layer porosity of the graded specimen is increased from 67 to 72%, the Young’s modulus of the graded specimen increases from 3.29 to 4.72 GPa, meanwhile the compressive strength increases from 131.9 to 165 MPa, respectively. These results suggest that the graded porous titanium scaffold has potential application for tissue engineering scaffolds under load-bearing conditions.