Influence of Ti powder characteristics on combustion synthesis of porous NiTi alloy

Porous NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) is a novel biomedical material used for human hard tissue implant. The influence of elemental titanium powder characteristics such as powder morphology, particle size and specific surface area (SSA) on the minimal ignition temperature, combustion temperature and final product of porous NiTi SMA fabricated by the combustion synthesis method was investigated in this paper by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser diffraction. The preliminary data indicate that the titanium powder characteristics have a strong effect on the combustion synthesis of porous NiTi SMA.