Title: Short-term tribological study of ceramic biomaterials against MgAZ31 under bio-lubricants for hip joint replacements

Authors: Nithyaprakash Rajavel; Shankar Subramaniam; Naveenkumar Raju; Abbas Ganesan; Sathish Subramanian; Nithileshwar P. Jeyamurthi; Vishwa Venkatesh; Chander Prakash; Alokesh Pramanik; Animesh Kumar Basak; Mohammad S. Uddin

Addresses: Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Erode 638 060, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India ' School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia ' Adelaide Microscopy, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia ' School of Engineering, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Abstract: The ceramic materials prove to be better alternative to metallic and polyethylene implants. The AZ31 alloy exhibits better biocompatible properties compared with existing metallic implants. The present study investigated the friction and wear rate properties of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄), Alumina (Al₂O₃), zirconia (ZrO₂) and zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) against AZ31 for 2 km under bio-lubricants using ball-on-disc (B-o-D) tribometer. The bio-lubricants considered for the current study include Ringer's solution, distilled water, saline solution and phosphate buffer saline (PBS). The B-o-D load of 20 N which equals the gait load of normal walking is taken into consideration for current study. Amongst the ceramic materials considered, ZTA and Si₃N₄ ceramic biomaterials showed better tribological behaviour for PBS bio-lubricant and comparatively maximum wear rate was observed for alumina-AZ31 combination for all bio-lubricants. Amongst the bio-lubricants, distilled water and saline solution exhibited poor tribological phenomenon compared with PBS bio-lubricant. The silicon nitride and ZTA showed better tribological behaviour for PBS bio-lubricant thus proving as potential materials for joint replacement in combination with AZ31.

Keywords: biomaterials; wear rate; MgAZ31; tribology; bio-lubricants; zirconia toughened alumina; ZTA; phosphate buffer saline; PBS.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2023.135786

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2023 Vol.17 No.4, pp.280 - 294

Received: 03 Feb 2023
Accepted: 26 Mar 2023
Published online: 05 Jan 2024 *

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