A comparison between the corrosion behaviour of sintered and unsintered porous titanium

Abstract

Corrosion tests were performed on sintered and unsintered titanium porous compacts of various porosities, as well as on solid titanium which acted as a control material. The tests were conducted in 0.9% aqueous NaCl solution maintained at 37 °C to simulate the physiological environment encountered by surgical implants in the human body. The results confirm that solid titanium and sintered porous titanium both possess a distinct passivation range. Unsintered porous titanium does not seem to passivate at all and suffers greater corrosion than solid titanium. Unsintered specimens compacted at higher pressures experienced more corrosion than those compacted at lower pressures, although sintered specimens behaved in the exact opposite fashion. An explanation is given in the paper for these phenomena. © 1995.