Corrosion and Fretting Corrosion Studies of Medical Grade CoCrMo Alloy in a Clinically Relevant Simulated Body Fluid Environment

In modular hip implants, fretting corrosion at the head/neck and neck/stem interfaces has been identified as a major cause of early revision in hip implants, particularly those with heads larger than 32 mm. It has been found that the type of fluid used to simulate the fretting corrosion of biomedical materials is crucial for the reliability of laboratory tests. Therefore, to properly understand and effectively design against fretting corrosion damage in modular hips, there is the need to replicate the human body environment as closely as possible during in vitro testing. In this work, corrosion and fretting corrosion behavior of CoCrMo in 0.14 M NaCl, phosphate buffered saline, and in a clinically relevant novel simulated body fluid was studied using a variety of electrochemical characterization techniques and tribological experiments. Electrochemical, spectroscopy and tribo-electrochemical techniques employed include Potentiodynamic polarization, Potentiostatic polarization, Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, augur electron spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, and pin-on-disk wear simulation. The presence of phosphate ions in PBS accounted for the higher corrosion rate when compared with 0.14 M NaCl and the clinically relevant novel simulated body fluid. The low corrosion rates and the nature of the protective passive film formed in the clinically relevant simulated body fluid make it suitable for future corrosion and fretting corrosion studies.