Novel double pore structures of TiAl produced by powder metallurgy processing

• A novel preparation process consisting of four stages has been successfully developed to produce Ti52Al48 (at.%) intermetallic compound porous materials based on the combined action of making pores arising from the replication of space holders and Kirkendall effect.
• The porous TiAl with high porosity even more than 80% exhibits typical double pore structures with an open-cellular homogeneous distribution.

A novel preparation process consisting of four stages has been successfully developed to produce Ti52Al48 (at.%) intermetallic compound porous material based on the combined action of making pores arising from the replication of space holders and Kirkendall effect. The porous TiAl exhibits a typical double pore structure, millimeter pores distributed in matrix and micrometer pores embedded in pore walls and struts. Moreover a complete open-cellular structure and homogeneous distribution can be observed and the porosity even more than 80% can be easily achieved. Compressive tests and micrograph observation illustrate that the most suitable sintering temperature should be around 1400 °C for the porous TiAl.