Corrosion Behavior of Titanium Implant with different Surface Morphologies

As one of vital biomaterials to implants, titanium (Ti) is widely used in the orthopedic and dentistry fields. In order to improve the interaction of biomaterial surfaces with tissues, various surface structures were fabricated by surface medication methods in previous researches. However, the corrosion of biomedical metallic materials is inevitable, and the ions released from their surfaces would lead to toxicity and allergen. Therefore, to achieve satisfied osseointegration, good corrosion resistance is necessary. In this paper, four groups of samples (smooth surface (P), microstructure surface (M), micro/nanostructure surface (MN) and functionalized micro/nanostructure surface (Ag-PDA)) were prepared, and the corrosion behavior of them was evaluated by electrochemical workstation in Ringer's solution. Through comparing to the electrochemical parameters of different samples, the corrosion resistance of the Ag-MN samples is the best, while that of the M samples is the worst. The results showed that treated samples displayed out good corrosion resistance except for M samples and the order of their corrosion resistance was Ag-PDA>MN>P>M. It was indicated that the suitable surface morphologies were important to improve the corrosion resistance of Ti via applying surface modification methods. In particular, the corrosion resistance of Ti would be significantly increased after covering a layer of barrier.