Determination of the corrosion rates of six dental NiCrMo alloys in an artificial saliva by chemical analysis of the medium using ICP-AES.

So that the influence of salivary components upon the corrosion rate of six dental NiCrMo alloys could be established, their mass loss was determined in a medium consisting of a modified Fusayama's artificial saliva to which 300 mg KSCN/L had been added (pH 5.0). Nickel was the main element released; its loss vs. immersion time curves on a log-log plot resembled straight lines. The total nickel losses after one week ranged from 0.4 to 12.5 micrograms/cm2. From the nickel loss, corrosion currents were calculated. The corrosion currents at 24 hours of immersion were up to 67% larger than the currents in a previous study of these alloys, where the medium consisted of a 20 mM KCI-5 mM phosphate buffer solution (pH 7). The alloys with the least molybdenum content showed the largest corrosion current increase.