Tribocorrosive Analysis of Titanium Grade V in Different Biological Solutions

The tribocorrosion and especially the (bio)tribocorrosion has been spreading in medical community due to its direct effect on prosthesis life cycle. Indeed, the combined action of mechanical and chemical wear promotes the total volume loss compromising the stability and thus the success of the implant. In this regard, the manuscript has the scope of investigating the tribocorrosive response of Titanium Grade V alloy, coupled with an alumina sphere, in three biological solutions as the Ringer’s ones. In this regard, techniques such as potentiostatic, potentiodynamic, open circuit potential and so on, were adopted. The latter provided the basis for modelling the total wear meant as sum of chemical, mechanical and synergistic component. The results showed that the chemical composition of the solution had a great influence on volume loss as much as on the tribochemical variables like friction, current and potential. Besides, the synergistic component was correlated with friction coefficient by a linear trend with determination coefficient (R2) equals to 0.89. Lastly, the dominant wear mechanism was the abrasive one with presence of pitting corrosion. In fact the total material loss was essentially composed of mechanical and corrosion-induced mechanical wear.