Fabrication of porous NiTi biomedical alloy by SHS method.

Having similar properties with natural bone, has made porous NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) a promising material for biomedical applications. In this study porous NiTi SMA has synthesized with 30 and 40 vol.% green porosity by self propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) from elemental Ni and Ti powders. After synthesizing, the average porosity of specimens reached to 36.8 and 49.8% for green compacts with 30 and 40 vol.% of green porosity, respectively. Combustion products were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS and electrochemical polarization test. Although desired B2 (NiTi) phase was the dominant phase, other phases like Ti2 Ni, Ni3 Ti and Ni4 Ti3 are found. Electrochemical polarization analysis in simulated body fluids (SBF) shows that, synthesized porous NiTi has better corrosion resistance than solid one and hydroxy apatite coating on porous NiTi worsen electrochemical corrosion resistance which is because of bioactive behavior of hydroxy apatite.