Comparison between corrosion behaviour of implant alloys Ti6Al7Nb and Ti6Al4Zr in artificial saliva

Abstract

Abstract The present paper investigates two different titanium alloys: Ti6Al7Nb – a well‐established implant biomaterial and Ti6Al4Zr – a relatively new titanium alloy. Roughness is evaluated with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance by contact angle measurements. Furthermore, an extensive characterization was done in order to evaluate and compare the electrochemical behaviour for both titanium alloys in artificial Fusayama and Afnor saliva, at different immersion times, and consisted of Tafel plots, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Also, metals ions release was measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). In both studied artificial saliva, Ti6Al4Zr alloy presents a better electrochemical behaviour according to corrosion rates from both electrochemical techniques and ICP‐MS.