Template-assisted freeze casting of macroporous Ti6Al4V scaffolds with long-range order lamellar structure

A modified water-based freeze casting to fabricate long-range order lamellar Ti6Al4V scaffolds with macropores and high porosity has been developed by using the pre-frozen WS2 substrate as the template. Pores morphologies of the scaffolds relied on the previous ice crystal which had formed in templates and thus could be adjusted by altering the template structure. The decrease of gelatin in WS2 slurry transformed the bottom template from cell pore structure into the lamellar structure followed by improvement of lamellar orientation of the top Ti6Al4V scaffold. The pore widths of the scaffolds were in the range of 84–217 μm which were difficult to realize without the assisted template. The scaffolds also exhibited mechanical compatibility with bone tissues, indicating that the template-assisted freeze casting is a promising approach to fabricate macroporous Ti6Al4V implants.