Tribocorrosion behavior of duplex treated pure titanium in Simulated Body Fluid

Commercially pure titanium (CP Ti) is widely used as an implant material, which has excellent corrosion resistance and high biocompatibility. However, pure Ti has poor tribological properties. For this reason, surface modification techniques and/or surface coatings have been applied on implant materials. For instance, plasma nitriding processes have been used to obtain protective coatings on pure Ti implants in order to improve their wear resistance and durability. In this study, a plasma nitriding process was applied on pure Ti substrates, which formed a hard compound layer consisting of TiN and Ti2N phases. An anodizing process was implemented on nitrided samples, which created a porous TiO2 oxide layer. Tribocorrosion tests were carried out with a reciprocating tribometer combined with a three-electrode cell. Tests were performed at open circuit potential (OCP), potentiostatic and potentiodynamic studies condition in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF). The OCP value and friction coefficient of duplex treated specimen under wear conditions were better compared to the other samples; nevertheless it was observed that the wear and the wear products were more effective during tribocorrosion tests. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.