Fabrication and properties of Lotus-type porous nickel-free stainless steel for biomedical applications

Lotus-type porous Fe–25 wt.%Cr, Fe–23 wt.%Cr–2 wt.%Mo alloys and type AISI 446 stainless steel were fabricated by continuous zone melting technique in pressurized hydrogen and helium gas. The porosity of the samples varied in the range 44–48% and the mean pore size values obtained (145–374 μm) are in the biomedical field desired range. The fabricated Lotus-type porous nickel-free stainless steel was nitrided at high temperature up to the nitrogen concentration of 1.0 wt.% and this amount resulted to be sufficient for maintaining almost single-phase austenitic structure at room temperature. The combination of very small magnetic susceptibility, light weight, mechanical properties close to the human cortical bone, together with the known good enough corrosion resistance of high nitrogen nickel-free stainless steel, makes this Lotus-type porous Fe–Cr–N alloys very attractive for bone implant applications.