Tribochemical products on borided AISI 316L steel exposed to Hank's solution

Abstract

In the biomedical industry, the AISI 316L steel has been widely used due to its biocompatibility and low cost. However, an undesired effect of the wear and corrosion influenced by operational conditions is the reaction of the tissue to the metal, generated by replacements of the biomedical components such as screws and fixing plates. In this work, the evolution of the chemical species formed on the surface of the borided and non-borided AISI 316L steels during wet sliding conditions using a simulated body fluid (SBF Hank's solution) was investigated with the aim to improve the wear performance of the AISI 316L steel exposed to a boriding process. The results revealed that the specific wear rate of the borided AISI 316L steel was ∼3 times lower than that of the non-borided AISI 316L steel under the same wet sliding conditions. Also, the corrosion and wear resistance of both steels are related to combinations of reaction productions such as B2S3, Cr2O3, and Fe2O3 during sliding wear by the formation of a passive layer, according to the results obtained by XPS, which reduced the specific wear rate. Finally, adhesive, abrasive, and tribo-oxidative wear modes were observed in both steels, with grooving, material agglomeration, plastic deformation, and passive film as the main wear mechanisms.