Corrosion behavior of high nitrogen nickel-free austenitic stainless steel in the presence of artificial saliva and Streptococcus mutans

High nitrogen nickel-free austenitic stainless steels (HNSs) have great potentials to be used in dentistry owing to its exceptional mechanical properties, high corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility. In this study, HNSs with nitrogen of 0.88 wt% and 1.08 wt% displayed much lower maximum pit depths than 316L stainless steel (SS) after 21 d of immersion in abiotic artificial saliva (2.2 μm and 1.7 μm vs. 4.5 μm). Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) evaluations revealed that Streptococcus mutans biofilms led to much severer corrosion of 316L SS than HNSs. Corrosion current densities of HNSs were two orders of magnitude lower than that of 316L SS after incubation of 7 d (37.5 nA/cm2 and 29.9 nA/cm2 vs. 5.63 μA/cm2). The pitting potentials of HNSs were at least 550 mV higher than that of 316L SS in the presence of S. mutans, confirming the better MIC resistance of HNSs. Cytotoxicity assay confirmed that HNSs were not toxic to MC3T3-E1 cells and allowed better sessile cell growth on them than on 316L SS. It can be concluded that HNSs are more suitable dental materials than the conventional 316L SS.