Manufacturing of biocompatible porous titanium scaffolds using a novel spherical sugar pellet space holder

A new and highly biocompatible space holder material is proposed for manufacturing of porous titanium with open and interconnected pore morphologies through powder metallurgy techniques. Sugar pellets are compacted with titanium powder and then removed by dissolution in water before sintering. The morphology, pore structure and porosity were observed by optical microscopy, SEM and micro-CT. The porous titanium has highly spherical pore shapes, well-controlled pore sizes and high interconnectivity. The results suggest that porous titanium scaffolds generated using this manufacturing route have the potential for hard tissue engineering applications.