Corrosion resistance of aged Ti–Mo–Nb alloys for biomedical applications

•The work presents the electrochemical behavior of aged Ti–Mo–Nb alloys.•Among the alloys, the Ti–10Mo–20Nb alloy showed to be more resistant to corrosion.•The values obtained were higher than to Ti–12Mo–13Nb and Ti–6Al–4V alloys. Metastable β-Ti alloys combine low elastic modulus, excellent mechanical strength as well as good corrosion resistance. Wherever, the presence of nontoxic elements such as Nb, Ta, Mo, and Zr is an important advantage. With such properties this type alloy has been developed for orthopedic applications. Previous studies had shown that the Ti–12Mo–13Nb and Ti–10Mo–20Nb alloys aged at 500°C presented higher hardness/elastic modulus ratio compared to commercially Ti–6Al–4V, indicating a great potential for biomedical application. However, additional studies are needed such as corrosion resistance. Therefore, the objective of this work was to analyze the electrochemical behavior of the Ti–12Mo–13Nb and Ti–10Mo–20Nb alloys aged at 500°C/24h and 500°C/4h, respectively. The electrochemical behavior was carried through by potentiodynamic polarization curves in Ringer’s solutions to simulate the body fluid. The Ti–10Mo–20Nb alloy showed to be more resistant to corrosion when compared to Ti–12Mo–13Nb alloy and the commercially Ti–6Al–4V alloy.