Abstract
This paper presents wear and corrosion resistance analysis of carbon nanotubes coated with Ti-6Al-4V alloy processed by electro-discharge treatment. The reported work is carried out using Taguchi’s L18 orthogonal array to design the experimental matrix by varying five input process parameters i.e., dielectric medium (plain dielectric, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) mixed dielectric), current (1–4 A), pulse-on-time (30–60 µs), pulse-off-time (60–120 µs), and voltage (30–50 V). The output responses are assessed in terms of microhardness and surface roughness of the treated specimen. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of the coated sample reveal the formation of intermetallic compounds, oxides, and carbides, whereas surface morphology is observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. For the purpose of the in-vitro wear behavior of treated samples, the surface with superior microhardness values in plain dielectric and MWCNTs mixed dielectric is compared using a pin-on-disc type wear test. Furthermore, electrochemical corrosion test is also conducted to portray the dominance of treated substrate of Ti-6Al-4V alloy for biomedical applications. It is concluded that the wear-resistant and the corrosion protection efficiency of the MWCNTs treated substrate enhanced to 95%, and 96.63%, respectively.
Highlights
Progress into medical diagnosis, therapy, and rehabilitation is not achievable without the persistent advances in the development of novel or refined materials
The Ti-6Al-4V alloy surface was processed by electro-discharge treatment with the purpose of improving its surface hardness, surface characteristics, and to examine the in-vitro corrosion behavior and tribological performance of the modified surface
The treated samples were compared with the substrate sample and the following conclusions can be drawn: The surface characterization of the samples revealed that the surface-treated in multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) medium demonstrated improved surface hardness to 10 times (4452.5 HV), compared with the untreated substrate sample (435.4 HV), increasing wear-resistance to 95%
Summary
Therapy, and rehabilitation is not achievable without the persistent advances in the development of novel or refined materials. Ti-6Al-4V alloy is very favorable in orthopedic applications owing to high weight-to-strength ratio, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility It possesses inferior wear and abrasion resilience, due to low hardness, and releases of toxic ions from the alloy surface within the human body environment [3]. During the EDT process, the particles of desired coating powder, added in the dielectric medium suspended around the discharge column, accelerated and gained sufficient velocity to penetrate to the molten pool before solidification by means of electrophoresis and negative pressure. This was induced after cessation of a discharge, which leads a surface embedded with added fine particles [12]. The surface produced by EDT exhibited superior corrosion-resistance, wear-resistance as compared to the untreated substrate material, and promoted bioactivity [14]
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