TY - JOUR

T1 - Porous poly-ether ether ketone (PEEK) manufactured by a novel powder route using near-spherical salt bead porogens

T2 - characterisation and mechanical properties

AU - Siddiq, Abdur R.

AU - Kennedy, Andrew R.

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Materials Science and Engineering C. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Materials Science and Engineering C, 47, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2014.11.044

PY - 2015/2/1

Y1 - 2015/2/1

N2 - Porous PEEK structures with approximately 85% open porosity have been made using PEEK-OPTIMAtextregistered powder and a particulate leaching technique using porous, near-spherical, sodium chloride beads. A novel manufacturing approach is presented and compared with a traditional dry mixing method. Irrespective of the method used, the use of near-spherical beads with a fairly narrow size range results in uniform pore structures. However the integration, by tapping, of fine PEEK into a pre-existing network salt beads, followed by compaction and textquotedblleftsinteringtextquotedblright, produces porous structures with excellent repeatability and homogeneity of density; more uniform pore and strut sizes; an improved and predictable level of connectivity via the formation of textquotedblleftwindowstextquotedblright between the cells; faster salt removal rates and lower levels of residual salt. Although tapped samples show a compressive yield stress N1 MPa and stiffness N30 MPa for samples with 84% porosity, the presence of windows in the cell walls means that tapped structures show lower strengths and lower stiffnesses than equivalent structures made by mixing.

AB - Porous PEEK structures with approximately 85% open porosity have been made using PEEK-OPTIMAtextregistered powder and a particulate leaching technique using porous, near-spherical, sodium chloride beads. A novel manufacturing approach is presented and compared with a traditional dry mixing method. Irrespective of the method used, the use of near-spherical beads with a fairly narrow size range results in uniform pore structures. However the integration, by tapping, of fine PEEK into a pre-existing network salt beads, followed by compaction and textquotedblleftsinteringtextquotedblright, produces porous structures with excellent repeatability and homogeneity of density; more uniform pore and strut sizes; an improved and predictable level of connectivity via the formation of textquotedblleftwindowstextquotedblright between the cells; faster salt removal rates and lower levels of residual salt. Although tapped samples show a compressive yield stress N1 MPa and stiffness N30 MPa for samples with 84% porosity, the presence of windows in the cell walls means that tapped structures show lower strengths and lower stiffnesses than equivalent structures made by mixing.

U2 - 10.1016/j.msec.2014.11.044

DO - 10.1016/j.msec.2014.11.044

M3 - Journal article

VL - 47

SP - 180

EP - 188

JO - Materials Science and Engineering: C

JF - Materials Science and Engineering: C

SN - 0928-4931

ER -