Abstract
The human body is an extremely aggressive environment in terms of corrosion. Titanium and its alloys are one of the most popular biomaterials used for implant applications due to biocompatibility. However, every element introduced into the body is treated as a foreign body. The human body’s immune response may, therefore, lead to implant rejection and the need for reoperation. For this purpose, it seems important to carry out surface modifications by applying coatings and inter alia by texturing to implants. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of surface treatment on the chosen properties of the pure titanium (Grade II) samples obtained by selective laser melting (SLM) processing. The samples were divided into five groups: Initial state (after polishing), after surface modification by the physical vapour deposition (PVD) method—CrN and TiN coatings were deposited on the surface of the tested material, and after laser texturing. The paper presents the results of the microscopic investigation, chemical and phase compositions, and physicochemical and electrochemical properties of the tested samples. Based on the results obtained it can be concluded that the hybrid surface modification shows significant effects on the properties of the pure titanium. The samples with the textured PVD-deposited TiN coatings were characterized by favorable physicochemical properties and were the highest performing in terms of pitting corrosion resistance.
Highlights
Titanium and its alloys, especially pure titanium (Ti Grade II and Ti Grade IV) and Ti-6Al-4V alloy (Ti Grade V) are the most common metallic biomaterials for long-lasting implantation in dental and orthopedic application [1,2]
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns (Figure 3c) of samples in initial state M1 resulted in only alpha, which confirms the data contained in the material card, which was provided by the manufacturer
There are a lot of microparticles on the surface of TiN coating, which is a common phenomenon in the arc evaporation physical vapour deposition (PVD) process
Summary
Especially pure titanium (Ti Grade II and Ti Grade IV) and Ti-6Al-4V alloy (Ti Grade V) are the most common metallic biomaterials for long-lasting implantation in dental and orthopedic application [1,2]. The passive layer does not fully guarantee corrosion protection, because it can include some defects (inclusions and discontinuity—weak spots), which could become the initial areas of corrosion [10]. This is an important aspect, given that the human body environment is an aggressive corrosive environment. The main disadvantage of titanium is poor wear resistance, which is generally inferior to that other metallic biomaterials [11].
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