Comparative analysis of the corrosion resistance of titanium alloys intended to come into direct or prolonged contact with live tissues

Abstract

The evaluation of the biological safety and degradation of materials is quite important for risk assessment in various biomedical applications. In this study, two procedures were followed to characterize the corrosion resistance of different Ti-based alloys. The first one consisted of performing specific electrochemical tests (open circuit potential, linear resistance polarization, Tafel plots, potentiodynamic polarization) in order to highlight their behavior to the general and localized corrosion. The static and dynamic fatigue cycles combined with crevice corrosion conducted on a new prototype have completed the study. The second procedure followed was a cations extraction investigation (by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) in order to verify the ionic permeability of the oxides layers formed on the surfaces. Optical and scanning electron microscopy were used for surface analysis. It was noticed that in these two electrolytes, the bulk Ti-based alloys presented an almost similar general corrosion behavior. The small differences of behavior for Ti6Al4V scaffolds were correlated to the surface oxidation and roughness (owing to the selective laser melting process). The Ti alloys presented no traces of localized corrosion at the end of the test. The fatigue cycles revealed that a strong and adhesive oxides film was formed during the static cycles (difficult to remove even during the depassivation steps). The concentration of cations released was at the detection limit, revealing very good passivation films, in adequacy with the all the other results.