Hydrothermal fabrication of highly porous titanium bio-scaffold with a load-bearable property

Porous titanium (P_Ti) is considered as an effective material for bone scaffold to achieve a stiffness reduction. Herein, biomimetic (bio-)scaffolds were made of sintered P_Ti, which used NaCl as the space holder and had it removed via the hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction results showed that the subsequent sintering temperature of 1000 °C was the optimized temperature for preparing P_Ti. The compressive strength of P_Ti was measured using a compression test, which revealed an excellent load-bearing ability of above 70 MPa for that with an addition of 50 wt % NaCl (P_Ti_50). The nano-hardness of P_Ti, tested upon their solid surface, was presumably consistent with the density of pores vis-à-vis the addition of NaCl. Overall, a load-bearable P_Ti with a highly porous structure (e.g., P_Ti_50 with a porosity of 43.91% and a pore size around 340 μm) and considerable compressive strength could be obtained through the current process. Cell proliferation (MTS) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assays showed that all P_Ti samples exhibited high cell affinity and low cell mortality, indicating good biocompatibility. Among them, P_Ti_50 showed relatively good in-cell morphology and viability, and is thus promising as a load-bearable bio-scaffold.