Microstructural, electrochemical and wear-corrosion characterization of TC4-5Cu alloy fabricated by selective laser melting

Additive manufacturing TC4–5Cu alloy has huge potential application prospects in the field of biomedicine. In this paper, the TC4–5Cu alloys with potential for biomedical applications under different laser energy densities were successfully prepared using selective laser melting (SLM) technology, aiming at investigating the effect of laser energy densities on the microstructure, hardness, electrochemical corrosion and wear-corrosion behavior. The as-SLMed TC4–5Cu alloy samples were mainly composed of α-Ti and a small amount of Ti2Cu. The proportion of small-sized grains in as-SLMed TC4–5Cu alloy samples increases as the laser energy density decreases. Moreover, a large number of low-angle grain boundaries were observed in as-SLMed TC4–5Cu alloy samples. The results of electrochemical corrosion and wear-corrosion tests show that the electrochemical corrosion resistance and wear-corrosion resistance of as-SLMed TC4–5Cu alloy samples decrease with the decrease of laser energy density.