Biotribocorrosion—an appraisal of the time dependence of wear and corrosion interactions: I. The role of corrosion

With the increasing interest in metal-on-metal (MoM) joint implants, studies have been focused on their wear and corrosion behaviour. Integrated electrochemical tests have been conducted and are reported in this paper. The corrosion, wear and wear–corrosion behaviour for three materials (high carbon CoCrMo, low carbon CoCrMo and UNS S31603) have been discussed. Corrosion effects on the overall performance for the three materials are analysed. Two distinct regimes have been found for the three materials: (a) the running-in regime and (b) the steady state regime, in line with other research. Even in the steady state regime, 20%–30% of the material degradation can be attributed to corrosion-related damage. High carbon CoCrMo showed excellent corrosion, wear and corrosion–wear resistance and therefore it delivered the best overall performance in terms of a lower wear rate, a lower friction coefficient and a higher resistance to corrosion.