Processing titanium foams using tapioca starch as a space holder

In this paper, the fabrication of open cellular titanium foams by using an innovative spacer through powder metallurgy was investigated. Current space holders used to fabricate titanium foam have brought attention to issues such as solubility, removal time, expensiveness and lack of environmental friendliness. Starch, as a new spacer, has been utilized in this research to overcome these issues. Starch is an environmentally friendly organic polymer that can be burnt off easily by heating. Starch is chemically stable and is not soluble in titanium. Titanium foams were fabricated in this study using starch. The mechanical properties and pore structures were investigated by SEM. The porosities of the fabricated titanium foams were 64–79%, and the sizes of open cellular pores were 100–300 μm. The observed yield strength of the foams was in the range of 23–41 MPa, and the Youngʹs moduli were 1.6–3.7 GPa. Finally, the XRD results of titanium before and after sintering were studied to ensure that the foams produced featured no contamination.