Porous Materials from Titanium Powders: Past, Present, and Future

Literature overview and our own results are used to identify the most promising areas of research in the field of titanium porous powder materials (PPMs). The search for possible ways of further reduction in PPM cost is a relevant area. It includes not only the use of sponge titanium powder and titanium sponge as the feedstock but also titanium hydride powder and, in the long term, enriched rutile concentrate. The development of new methods to increase PPM mechanical strength, such as microalloying, use of bisized feedstock, etc., has a great resource-saving potential. Advantages of developing new processes to form and consolidate PPMs from titanium powders are described, including: formation of a gradient porous structure by spark plasma, electric-discharge, selective laser, and microwave sintering and microinjection molding; modification of physicochemical and biochemical properties of PPM pore surface to change functional characteristics; creation of composite PPMs containing isotropically distributed target components such as activators, sorbents, reinforcing additives, etc. It is important to develop PPMs with anisotropic structural properties across the thickness and (or) the area of the porous element distributing a flow of gas or liquid.