Abstract
Titanium alloys' exceptional mechanical qualities, remarkable corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility have made them popular choices for use as metallic materials in medical applications. Since solid titanium alloys have a larger elastic modulus than real human bones, porous titanium alloys are used in place of solid titanium alloys to get results that are comparable to those of human bones and meet orthopedic requirements. In this work, porous titanium was fabricated using powder metallurgy processes to study the effects of porosity and pore size on the compressive strength and electrochemical response. To obtain foams with varying pore features, the content of NaCl was varied between 0–80 vol. %. Furthermore, NaCl particles of varying sizes between 100 and 600 µm were employed. Subsequently, specimens underwent preparations for analysis using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy to examine the microstructure. Additionally, 3D X-ray micro-CT scanning was used to provide detailed information on the foam porosities. The pore size of the sample affects its corrosion resistance against the 0.9 wt.%. NaCl solution and the lowest corrosion rate were recorded with the sample having the finest pores. Instead, with compressive strength the trend goes the other way round, i.e., strength increases with pore size. As expected, the compressive strength of the porous titanium was found to be showing a linear relationship with porosity.