Significance of Tribocorrosion in Biomedical Applications: Overview and Current Status

TLDR

Tribocorrosion, the intersection of tribology and corrosion, has attracted attention across multiple fields—including offshore, space, and biomedical—because of its practical and economic impacts, particularly in orthopedic implants where metal surfaces undergo joint articulation in corrosive body fluids, and its complexity arises from interacting mechanical and corrosion parameters and the absence of integrated testing systems. The authors aim to consolidate existing biotribocorrosion research and present a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge. They achieve this by reviewing recent studies focused on orthopedic surgery and dentistry, synthesizing key findings to illustrate the field’s development.

Abstract

Recently, “ tribocorrosion, ” a research area combining the science of tribology and corrosion, has drawn attention from scientists and engineers belonging to a wide spectrum of research domains. This is due to its practical impact on daily life and also the accompanying economical burdens. It encompasses numerous applications including the offshore, space, and biomedical industry, for instance, in the case of artificial joints (Total Hip Replacement, THR) in orthopedic surgery, where implant metals are constantly exposed to tribological events (joint articulations) in the presence of corrosive solutions, that is, body fluids. Keeping the importance of this upcoming area of research in biomedical applications in mind, it was thought to consolidate the work in this area with some fundamental aspects so that a comprehensive picture of the current state of knowledge can be depicted. Complexity of tribocorrosion processes has been highlighted, as it is influenced by several parameters (mechanical and corrosion) and also due to the lack of an integrated/efficient test system. Finally a review of the recent work in the area of biotribocorrosion is provided, by focusing on orthopedic surgery and dentistry.