Basic electrochemical behavior of Ti-7Cu alloys for medical applications

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two different treatments, as-cast setup and solution heat treatment, on the general electrochemical corrosion resistance of Ti-7Cu alloy samples immersed in a 0.9 wt% NaCl solution at 25 °C. The microstructure was examined by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffractometry. Corrosion behavior was tested by potentiodynamic polarization curves. Finer ά martensite and Ti 2Cu intermetallic particles were provided by casting and heat treated processes, respectively. The results indicated that only corrosion potential is significantly more noble in the heat treated sample, but other characteristics are only slightly different.