Abstract:
Surface porous NiTi-Hydroxyapatite(HA)/NiTi biocomposites were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technology. The effects of different sintering temperatures on the macroscopic morphology, microstructure, surface pore characteristics, mechanical properties and in vitro biological activity of the composites were investigated. The results show that the NiTi-HA/NiTi biocomposites are consisted of complex Ti, Ni, Ti
2Ni, Ni
3Ti, HA mixed phase and gradually transformed into a single NiTi+HA phase with increasing of sintering temperatures form 800℃ to 950℃. Furthermore, a stable metallurgical bonding on the internal and external interface of the composites can be observed. Meanwhile, the porosity and average pore size of surface layer are in a slowly decreasing trend. As a result, compressive strength of the composites is significantly increased, but compressive elastic modulus of the composites is changed not obvious. Compared with NiTi, porous NiTi and porous NiTi-HA, NiTi-HA/NiTi biocomposites sintered at 950℃ not only exhibits a best match with better interface bonding, good surface pore characteristics (45.6% porosity as well as 393 μm average pore size), higher compressive strength (1 301 MPa), lower the compressive elastic modulus (10.2 GPa) and excellent superelastic recovery strain (>4%), but also showes a good in vitro biological activity.