Corrosion, Wear and Tribocorrosion Behavior of a New Biomedical Ti-20Zr-10Nb Alloy

The corrosion, wear and tribocorrosion behavior of a new biomedical Ti-20Zr-10Nb alloy was investigated using electrochemical measurements, tribological tests and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Potentiodynamic polarization tests show that the corrosion potential (E-corr) shifts towards negative values and that the corrosion current density (i(corr)) is increased by two orders of magnitude; these trends differ from those observed with static corrosion. The wear and tribocorrosion results indicate that the wear volume of the Ti-20Zr-10Nb alloy increases with increasing applied load. The contribution of mechanical wear to the material loss of tribocorrosion is greater than that of corrosion. However, the friction coefficients obtained under conditions of electrochemical corrosion are lower than that obtained only under wear. Through observation of the wear crack, it is determined that abrasive wear mechanism is the main mechanism of tribocorrosion. The effect of abrasive particles on the wear and tribocorrosion behavior is considered, and it is found that material loss increases due to particle damage.