Influence of microstructure and texture on the corrosion and tribocorrosion behavior of Ti-6Al-4V

In this paper, the corrosion and tribocorrosion behaviors of Ti-6Al-4V alloy having different phase composition, texture and microstructure was investigated. Potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were performed to evaluate the corrosion behavior. Sliding wear tests under anodic and cathodic polarization conditions were made to assess the tribocorrosion properties. SEM, OM, and XRD were used to characterize the microstructure, texture, and morphology of the samples. The corrosion resistance was found to depend on to the microstructure, as well as the texture of the surface. A bi-modal microstructure and prismatic texture showed the best corrosion behavior. However, when corrosion was coupled to sliding wear (tribocorrosion), the hardness was found to be the controlling factor. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.