Amorphous alloys resistant to corrosion in artificial saliva solution.

The tailoring of new corrosion-resistant alloys with specific properties has recently been performed mostly by the sputter deposition technique. The aim of this work was to investigate corrosion resistance of aluminum-tungsten (Al-W) amorphous alloys in artificial saliva solution, pH=5.5, based on the electrochemical methods of cyclic voltammetry and linear polarization. Thin alloy films were prepared on a sapphire substrate by magnetron codeposition. Completely amorphous films were obtained in the Al(80)W(20)-Al(67)W(33) composition range. Amorphous Al-W alloys exhibit very high corrosion resistance due to their homogeneous single-phase nature. The passive films spontaneously formed at their surface are uniform with characteristics of an insulator film and prevent corrosion progression in the bulk in a very demanding oral environment. The mechanism of increasing resistivity of Al-W alloys to pitting corrosion and generalized corrosion has been discussed in the view of increasing tungsten content in the alloy. Considering these exceptional corrosion properties and microhardness which falls in the range 7.5+/-1.6 Pa, Al-W alloys represent promising materials for dental applications.