Effect of Surface Treatments on Anodic Oxide Film Growth and Electrochemical
Properties of Tantalum used for Biomedical Applications
R A Silva1*,
I P Silva2,
B Rondot3
1 Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto/ISEP-CIEA, Rua Dr.
António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
andInstituto de Engenharia Biomédica/INEB, Rua do Campo Alegre, 823,
4150-180 Porto, Portugal
2 Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto/ISEP-CIEA, Rua Dr.
António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
3 CECM/CNRS, 15 Rue Georges Urbain, 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine Cedex, France
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
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Abstract |
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Self-expandable nitinol (nickel-titanium) alloys and 316L stainless steel are the
most commonly used materials in the production of coronary stents. However, tantalum
(Ta) has already been used to make stents for endovascular surgery and may constitute an
alternative to other materials because of its better electrochemical performance, namely
its higher corrosion resistance, as well as its radio-opacity. The characterization of
wet polished, chemically polished, wet polished anodized, and chemically polished
anodized Ta electrodes has been performed in a 0.15 M NaCl solution (simulated body
fluid) using U
corr = f(t) measurements, anodic polarizations, capacity
measurements, anodic oxidations, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging. Anodic
polarization curves have shown that the abnormal current density peak with a maximum
value around 1.65 V (critical applied potential, U
c) disappeared for the anodized electrodes indicating a probable relationship
between the surface states and the film growth. These results are confirmed by capacity
measurements. The behavior of wet polished and chemically polished electrodes during
anodic oxidations seemingly indicated that for these particular treatments the film
growth is different. The AFM images and roughness measurements have shown that chemical
polishing produced smoother electrodes, a fact probably related to the differences in
film growth.
Key Words:
AFM, anodic films, coronary stents, polarization, tantalum