Bio-corrosion Behavior of Direct Metal Laser Sintering-Manufactured Ti6Al4V–Hydroxyapatite Composite in Different Biofluids for Implant Applications

Abstract

In recent times, the Ti6Al4V–hydroxyapatite (Ti64–HA) composite has gained wide attention due to its applicability in bioimplant domain. As the additive manufacturing technique is highly applicable in the biomedical domain, it will be very interesting to study the corrosion and biomedical properties of Ti64–HA composite produced by this route. However, till now, no one has reported the corrosion behavior of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS)-produced Ti64–HA composite in a simulated body environment. In the present study, the corrosion properties of DMLS-produced Ti64–HA composite have been evaluated to investigate the above-mentioned research gap. For evaluating the influence of HA concentration, samples with three different compositions (0 pct HA, 5 pct HA, 10 pct HA) were fabricated using the DMLS route. Additionally, to evaluate the corrosion behavior in different physiological environments of the body, each composite composition was tested in three different bio-media/environments, such as simulated body fluids, physiological saline solution, and phosphate-buffered saline. Apart from corrosion, other characterizations, like microstructural, elemental composition, ICP, wettability, etc., were also performed to understand the obtained results. The experimental results have shown that the highest and lowest corrosion resistance were obtained for samples with Ti64 and Ti64–5HA, respectively. The analysis suggests that the difference in corrosion behavior is mainly linked to microstructural differences. Additionally, the formation of an oxide layer on the surface was also found to be influential on the corrosion rate of the material. On the other hand, corrosion resistance was found to be lowest in PSS and highest in SBF for all composite compositions. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.