Materials Science and Engineering

Microstructure, electrochemical, wear and corrosive wear performance of laser-based powder bed fusion and wrought biomedical Ti-6Al-4V alloys

  • A. G. LEKATOU ,
  • B. V. EFREMENKO ,
  • V. HAOUI ,
  • V. G. EFREMENKO ,
  • S. EMMANOUILIDOU ,
  • V. I. ZURNADZHY ,
  • I. PETRYSHYNETS ,
  • Yu. G. CHABAK ,
  • I. I. SILI
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  • 1. Laboratory of Applied Metallurgy, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
    School of Engineering, University of Ioannina, Ioannina 45110, Greece;
    2. Institute of Materials Science and Computing, University Research Center of Ioannina (URCI),
    Ioannina 45110, Greece;
    3. Department of Physics, Pryazovskyi State Technical University, Dnipro 49044, Ukraine;
    4. Institute of Materials Research of Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice 04001, Slovakia

Online published: 2025-11-04

Abstract

Wrought and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) Ti-6Al-4V (Ti-6-4) specimens were comparatively evaluated, with the objective to determine LPBF Ti-6Al-4V’s suitability for biomedical applications. Testing included nanoindentation, cyclic polarization in simulated body fluid (SBF, 37 °C), and dry and SBF “ball-on-plate” sliding. Wrought Ti-6-4 exhibited a lamellar α+β microstructure, whereas LPBF Ti-6-4 displayed a fine-grained α¢-martensite microstructure. LPBF Ti-6-4 demonstrated ~3% higher indentation modulus and ~32% higher hardness, while wrought Ti-6-4 showed ~8% higher plasticity. Both alloys exhibited low corrosion rates (10-5 mA/cm2 order) and true passivity (10-4 mA/cm2 order). No localized corrosion was observed in either two alloys, except for occasional metastable pitting in the LPBF alloy. However, LPBF Ti-6-4 presented higher corrosion rate and passive current, ascribed to its martensitic structure. During dry sliding, LPBF Ti-6-4 exhibited ~14% lower volume loss compared to wrought Ti-6-4. Sliding in SBF increased volume losses for both alloys, with wear resistances nearly equalized, as the advantage of LPBF Ti-6-4 decreased due to more intense wear-accelerated corrosion induced by the stressed martensite. Overall, the results demonstrate the suitability of LPBF Ti-6-4 for biomedical uses.

Cite this article

A. G. LEKATOU , B. V. EFREMENKO , V. HAOUI , V. G. EFREMENKO , S. EMMANOUILIDOU , V. I. ZURNADZHY , I. PETRYSHYNETS , Yu. G. CHABAK , I. I. SILI . Microstructure, electrochemical, wear and corrosive wear performance of laser-based powder bed fusion and wrought biomedical Ti-6Al-4V alloys[J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2025 , 35(8) : 2612 -2631 . DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(25)66836-1

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