Wear and corrosion behaviour of various surface treated medical grade titanium alloy in bio-simulated environment

Ti6Al4V alloy has been widely used as a suitable material for surgical implants such as artificial hip joints. Although this alloy is biocompatible, its wear resistance is inadequate. Therefore, three different surface treatments which were plasma nitriding, TiAlN thin film deposition by closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering (CFUBMS) and Al2O3 coating using plasma spray method were applied to the alloy to improve the tribological and electrochemical properties. To simulate human body environment, wear experiments were performed by using pin-on-disc tribotester in Ringer's solution at 37 degrees C. Moreover, potentiodynamic corrosion tests were carried out in Ringer's solution. It was observed that each three surface treatments improved wear and corrosion resistance of Ti6Al4V alloy. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.