Wear and corrosion of PLGA coatings on titanium in contact with bone and synovial fluid

ABSTRACT In this work, the synergism between wear and corrosion was evaluated in titanium specimens covered by PLGA. The tests were carried out in a tribocorrosion machine, taking into account two variables: scratch ve-locity and applied load. A bipotentiostat was adapted to obtain the potentiostatic curves and Tafel in resting, moving and wear-corrosion conditions. Surface topography was observed using a Carl-Zeiss Imager Z1 mi-croscope. This information, together with the results of the electrochemical tests, was used to establish the synergistic and degradation mechanisms of the material under the different test conditions. From the results obtained in this work, it was observed that the synergism is the most important factor of the degradation of the material with a percentage of 82% in such a way that the samples of titanium with PLGA coating showed wear favored by corrosion.