Research on Microwave Sintering Process for High Strength HA Porous Scaffold

Abstract

This paper investigated solid freeform fabrication(SFF) and microwave sintering processes of high strength HA porous scaffold. A newly developed SFF method called motor assisted micro-syringe freeform fabrication system was introduced to construct HA scaffolds. Sintering conditions that influenced the phases, microstructure and mechanical strength of scaffolds were discussed. Study of microstructure images and strength test results showed that densification and grain size were found to play an important role in determining the mechanical properties of sintered porous scaffolds, and microwave sintering process could get a sintered scaffold with small grain size and uniform structure more rapidly at lower sintering temperature than that of the conventional sintering. The fabricated HA scaffolds with controlled architecture (interconnected macro pore of 200-400μm, micro pore of 1-10μm within the rods) and improved mechanical properties (45.2MPa, 56.2% porosity ) may find potential applications in bone tissue engineering.