Applications of Porous Titanium
- Biomedical
Titanium and its alloys have garnered significant attention in the biomedical field due to their excellent corrosion resistance, low density, and superior biocompatibility. However, the high elastic modulus of dense titanium Metal can lead to rejection by human tissues, causing implanted titanium to fail. Porous titanium, on the other hand, possesses a lower elastic modulus, and by controlling its porosity, it can be made to match that of human bone. Furthermore, after certain chemical and heat treatments, porous titanium can exhibit osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity, leading to the formation of ectopic bone upon contact with osseous tissue. Therefore,porous titanium plays a crucial role in biomedical fields such as bone tissue engineering. Research indicates that in bioactive devices, porous titanium can stabilize fixation devices and shorten the healing period, eliminating the need for autologous bone grafting.
- Battery Electrodes
Porous materials, owing to their high porosity, large specific surface area, and high compressive strength, can be used as catalysts, biomaterials, filtration devices, or gas diffusion media. When porous titanium is used as the anode for the gas diffusion layer (GDL) in polymer electrolyte fuel cells, it eliminates the need for precious metals like iridium or ruthenium, which are traditionally used in anodes, significantly reducing the anticipated cost of the system. Research has found that the unique combination of porous titanium and TiO₂ coated anodes exhibits highly stable charge-discharge cycling performance, showing promise as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries with higher safety and stability. The design of electrodes based on porous titanium is not limited to lithium-ion battery applications but will also be applied as catalysts or filters in other energy and environmental fields. The potential applications of porous titanium in solar cells, photocatalysts, and composite electrodes have been explored. The excellent photoelectrochemical performance of porous titanium and TiO₂ coated anodes can be attributed to the large specific surface area of porous titanium and the multiple active adsorption sites of TiO₂ nanoparticle disks. The application of novel 3D photoelectrodes will provide new directions for environmental remediation and solar energy conversion.
- Aerospace
With the development of aerospace technology, the service environment for aerospace vehicles is becoming increasingly harsh. Among the critical components ensuring the safe flight of these vehicles, the thermal protection system has increasingly demanding performance requirements. The excellent high-temperature resistance of titanium alloys and the thermal insulation properties of their porous structures provide possibilities for the application of porous titanium in the aerospace field. Titanium alloy foam composites can be used in spacecraft thermal protection shells with high heat resistance requirements, as well as honeycomb structures in aero-engines. Double-layer sandwich porous convection cooling structures can effectively block heat transfer to the inner layer structure, exhibiting good thermal insulation properties.
