Electrochemical behaviour of TiO ₂ nanotube on titanium in artificial saliva containing bovine serum albumin

Titanium that has been anodised to develop a nanotubular titanium oxide film is gaining interest as a dental implant material. In the present work, the corrosion behaviour of the nanotubular titanium has been investigated and compared with that of the mechanical polished titanium in artificial saliva containing bovine serum albumin (BSA, 5 g L ^-1). The results indicate that the diameter of TiO ₂ nanotube plays an important role in controlling the potentiodynamic polarisation behaviour, and the existence of TiO ₂ nanotube enhances the corrosion resistance and reduces the corrosion current density, which is more beneficial to the adsorption of BSA compared with the mechanical polished titanium, leading to a notable increase in the corrosion resistance of the outer TiO ₂ nanotubular layer. © 2012 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.