Effect of Mechanical Milling on Corrosion Resistance and Biocompatibility of Titanium-Hydroxyapatite Composites

Anawati1, Hiroaki Tanigawa1, Hidetaka Asoh1, Takuya Ohno2, Masahiro Kubota2, and Sachiko Ono1 Department Applied Chemistry, Kogakuin University, 2665-1 Nakano, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0015, Japan 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nihon University, 1-2-1 Izumi-cho, Narashino-shi, Chiba 2758575, Japan bq40967@ns.kogakuin.ac.jp High strength Ti has drawn considerable attention for biomedical implants application especially for orthopedic implants which exposed to high mechanical stress. It has been known that Ti exhibits excellent corrosion properties and biocompatibility, attributed to the naturally formed oxide film covering the metal surface, in a living organism. Despite this biocompatible characteristic, Ti does not promote the formation of bone mineral hydroxyapatite (HAp) layer. To improve the biocompatibility of the material, in this study, high strength Ti was alloyed with HAp prepared by mechanical milling (MM) technique followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) [1]. Concentration of HAp in the alloys was varied from 10%, 20% up to 30%. Effect of mechanical milling time was investigated on 4 h and 8 h milled samples for each HAp concentration. The effect of HAp in the alloys which may alter the corrosion properties of pure Ti in chloride environment was investigated by electrochemical technique. The study was based on potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization measurements in neutral solution of 9 g/l NaCl at 36.5C. Potentiodynamic polarization data showed that mechanically milled (MMed) pure Ti demonstrated passive behaviour. Addition of 10% HAp in the alloys did not affect the polarization curve of Ti, independent of mechanical milling time. Increasing HAp concentration to 20 % and 30 % in the alloy reduced the corrosion resistance of Ti as shown by decrease in corrosion potential and significant increase in current density output relative to pure Ti. In addition, the 8 h MMed alloys showed active-passive transitions peaks at -0.6 VAg/AgCl and +0.2 VAg/AgCl which probably indicated dissolution of Ti oxide/hydroxide layer followed each time by repassivation. Potentiostatic test at +0.5 VAg/AgCl for all of the alloys showed similar trend of steady state current density after 2 minutes exposure in 9 g/l NaCl solution. The stable current density indicated surface passivation which confirmed the potentiodynamic data. [1] T. Ohno and M. Kubota, Journal of Japan Institute of Light Metals 60 (2010) 647.
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