A Comparative Study on the Corrosion Performance of Ni47Ti49Co4 and Ni51Ti49 Shape Memory Alloys in Simulated Saliva Solution for Dental Applications

In this study, the corrosion behavior of Ni47Ti49Co4 shape memory alloy (SMA) was investigated in simulated saliva solution with the binary alloy Ni51Ti49 as a reference. The surface morphology and the chemical composition of the oxide films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy before and after immersion in the test solutions, respectively. The results showed that the ternary alloy was less affected by the test solution, owning to the formation of passive layer composed mainly of the oxides of titanium and cobalt in several oxidation states. Cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization measurements affirmed that the passive oxide film significantly improved the corrosion resistance of Ni47Ti49Co4 SMAs as demonstrated by the smaller corrosion current density, larger resistance and smaller capacitance. Consequently, alloying with cobalt, which has paramount importance in enhancing the passive layer, expands the use of Ni47Ti49Co4 SMAs in dental work as new nitinol alloys with high corrosion resistances.