S. Frangini et C. Piconi, Repassivation rates of surgical implant alloys by rotating-disk scratchingmeasurements, MATER CORRO, 52(5), 2001, pp. 372-380
As the dissolution of metals ions in living tissues is an issue of primary
importance in the field of surgical implant alloys, a rotating disk scratch
technique has been used to examine this aspect by studying the potentiosta
tic repassivation behavior of pure titanium of commercial grade 11 and AISI
316L Stainless Steel (SS) samples in aqueous chloride solutions. By evalua
ting the effects of applied potential. pH and surface treatment on the curr
ent decay transients in the millisecond regime the higher tendency to passi
vate of titanium with respect to the stainless steel has been clearly demon
strated. An analysis conducted to estimate the efficiency of the oxide form
ation process has led to the conclusion that the majority of the measured t
ransient current goes to the anodic dissolution process on both the materia
ls investigated. Moreover, a repetitive process of film formation/breakdown
on the AISI 316L surface related to pitting corrosion has been observed to
strongly increase the ion release in the vicinity of the characteristic pi
tting potentials.