Mechanical, Electrochemical and Biological Behavior of 3D Printed-Porous Titanium for Biomedical Applications

Porosity is a feature that can be designed into 3D printed parts, notably surgical implants, and porosity is associated with improved biocompatibility and osseointegration. It is imperative to evaluate the electrochemical behavior of 3D printed-porous Ti to identify the optimum porosity with low corrosion kinetics for biomedical applications. The objective of this study was to evaluate the corrosion kinetics, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility of 3D printed porous Titanium alloy metal. 3D printed porous Ti samples of 11 mm diameter and 7 mm thick with five porosity levels (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%) were manufactured, mechanically tested, studied for characterization and Electrochemical behavior. The cell proliferations was also conducted on different groups for the examination of their biocompatibility, which might indicate the influence of porosity to the cellular activities. The results showed that increasing porosity corresponds with decreasing mechanical strength and increasing corrosion characteristics. Corrosion current, Icorr values ranged from 10−7 to 10−4 A, and Ecorr values ranged from + 100 to − 600 mV for all five porosity-level samples. Analysis of EIS data indicated that capacitance values ranged from 0.00025 to 0.0015F. In addition, sample porosity showed evidence of other corrosion forms such as crevice corrosion and intergranular corrosion. The results of cell proliferations demonstrated all groups of specimens are biocompatible and the ones with 0% and 40% porosity exhibited the highest increments of cells, implying their potential in biomedical application. The study revealed that 3D printed Ti samples with larger porosity were subjected to increased electrochemical corrosion. A porosity between 40 and 60% 3D printed porous Ti study sample was found optimum for the biomedical application. The development of future biomedical devices will have to maintain a balanced approach between the osseointegration of large porosities and increased corrosion tendencies to optimize safer devices through additive manufacturing or 3D printing for better patient outcomes. Further studies will evaluate 3D-printed tribocorrosion properties and biocompatibility via osteoblast culture. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.