Electrochemical Behavior of Type 316L Stainless Steel during Cyclic Deformation under Cell Culturing

Abstract

Dissolution and repassivation of type 316L stainless steel during cyclic deformation were examined in a simulated body environment. Samples were exposed to simulated body fluid (SBF) with or without cells, and then subjected to cyclical deformation in the SBF kept at cell culturing condition. The cyclic stress ratio and maximum stress were 0.1 and 300 MPa, respectively. Transients of stress, strain and corrosion potential were recorded during the test.
The corrosion potential became less noble immediately after the start of the test, but started to increase again after about 10∼1000 cycles. The minimum corrosion potential depends on the treatment prior to the deformation: the lowest value was observed for the specimen previously immersed in SBF for 1 day without cells, whereas the highest one was shown by the specimen immersed for 1 week in the presence of cultured cells. This reveals that proteins and cells inhibit metal dissolution during deformation. On the other hand, the time needed for the potential revert to noble was the longest for the sample containing cells, and shortest for the cell-free sample immersed for 1 day. This denotes that proteins and cells also suppress repassivation.