Corrosion resistance of multilayer hybrid sol-gel coatings deposited on the AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel

In the present work multilayer hybrid sol-gel coatings were synthesized on the AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel employed in the fabrication of orthopaedic implants. Hybrid sols were obtained from a mixture of inorganic precursor, TEOS, and organic, GPTMS, using ethanol as solvent, and acetic acid as catalyst. The characterization of the sols was performed using pH measurements, rheological tests and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for different ageing times. On the other hand, the coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while the corrosion resistance was evaluated using anodic potentiodynamic polarization in SBF solution at 37±2°C. The results confirmed that sol-gel synthesis employing TEOS-GPTMS systems produces uniform and homogeneous coatings, which enhanced the corrosion resistance with regard to the parent alloy. Moreover, corrosion performance was retained after applying more than one layer (multilayer coatings).