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Effect of the environment on wear ranking and corrosion of biomedical CoCrMo alloys

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Abstract

The corrosion behaviour and the wear ranking of biomedical high carbon (HC) and low carbon (LC) CoCrMo alloys sliding against an alumina ball in four different simulated body fluids [NaCl and phosphate buffered solutions (PBS) with and without albumin] has been analyzed by tribocorrosion and electrochemical techniques. The effects of alloy and of albumin on corrosion depend on the base electrolyte: differences between LC and HC alloy were only observed in NaCl solutions but not in PBS. Albumin increased significantly corrosion of both alloys in PBS solutions while its effect in NaCl was smaller. The wear ranking of the HC and LC alloys also depends on the environment. In the present study, HC CoCrMo alloy had lower wear resistance in NaCl and PBS + albumin than the LC alloy, while no differences between both alloys were found in the other solutions. This was attributed to surface chemical effects affecting third body behaviour.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank J.-D. Neuvecelle for XRF analysis and P. Mettraux for the SEM analysis using the CIME-EPFL microscope. Plus Orthopaedics kindly provided the hip joint simulator heads.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Nuclear, E.T.S.I. Industriales, Universitat Politècnica de València, P.O. Box 22012, 46071, Valencia, Spain

    A. Igual Muñoz

  2. Tribology and Interface Chemistry Group (Station 12, SCI-STI-SM), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    S. Mischler

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Correspondence to A. Igual Muñoz.

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Igual Muñoz, A., Mischler, S. Effect of the environment on wear ranking and corrosion of biomedical CoCrMo alloys. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 22, 437–450 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-010-4224-0

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