Effect of Sintering Process on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Porous Ti-5Cu Alloy

Porous Ti-5 Cu alloy with anisotropic porous structure was prepared by powder metallurgy method using 40% of spherical stearic acid as the space holder agent,and the effect of sintering process on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the porous Ti-5 Cu alloy was studied.The results show that the sintering temperature and holding time have no obvious effects on the phase compositions of porous Ti-5 Cu alloy,but they have great influences on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the alloy.Porous Ti-5 Cu alloy with good pore structure and mechanical properties can be prepared by vacuum sintering at 900℃ and holding for 2 h,with 68.25% of porosity,89.00 MPa of compressive strength and 3.79 GPa of elastic modulus.The obtained alloy has the similar mechanical properties with human bone and has the potential to be used as bone repair material.