COMPATIBILITY OF FERRITIC AND DUPLEX STAINLESS-STEELS AS IMPLANT MATERIALS - IN-VITRO CORROSION PERFORMANCE

The pitting corrosion, crevice corrosion and accelerated leaching of i ron, chromium and nickel of super-ferritic and duplex stainless steels , and for effective comparison the presently used 316L stainless steel , have been studied in an artificial physiological solution (Hank's so lution) by the potentiodynamic anodic polarization method. The results of the above studies have shown the new super-ferritic stainless stee l to be immune to pitting and crevice corrosion attack. The pitting an d crevice corrosion resistances of duplex stainless steel were found t o be superior to those of the commonly used type 316L stainless steel implant materials. The accelerated leaching study conducted for the ab ove alloys showed very little tendency for the leaching of metal ions when compared with 316L stainless steel. Thus the present study indica ted that super-ferritic and duplex stainless steels can be adopted as implant materials due to their higher pitting and crevice corrosion re sistance.