The interaction of an implant with the human body environment may result in degradation of the implant, called corrosion. This article discusses the corrosion testing of metallic implants and implant materials. The corrosion environments for medical implants are the extracellular human body fluids, very complex solutions containing electrolytes and nonelectrolytes, inorganic and organic constituents, and gases. The article describes the fundamentals of electrochemical corrosion testing and provides a brief discussion on various types of corrosion tests. It illustrates corrosion current density determination by Tafel extrapolation, potentiodynamic measurement of the polarization resistance, electrochemical impedance measurement, and potentiostatic deaeration. Tests combining corrosion and mechanical forces, such as fretting corrosion tests, environment-assisted cracking tests, and ion-leaching tests are also discussed.

This article describes two principal methods for detecting well casing corrosion, namely, metal-loss tools and casing current measurement, as well as their limitations and advantages. It discusses the factors to be considered in designing well casing cathodic protection systems. These include the determination of cathodic protection current by the casing polarization and CPP tests or by mathematical models; calculation of casing-to-anode separation; isolation of the casing from other facilities; consideration of stray current interference from other dc power sources; and determination of the size and the location of the anode bed for effective current output for the desired life of the anode bed. The article concludes with a discussion on the commissioning and monitoring of cathodic protection systems.

Chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) of metals is described as mechanically accelerated corrosion, erosion corrosion, or metallic corrosion enhanced by wear. This article reviews the history, process, chemistry, electrochemistry, and defect issues for CMP. It provides an overview of CMP through a schematic illustration of CMP process equipment. The applications of CMP to tungsten and copper alloys are of prime interest in the semiconductor industry. The article discusses copper CMP and tungsten CMP in detail and analyzes polishing mechanism during CMP by application of direct current potentiodynamic polarization and alternating current impedance measurements. It concludes with information on chemically induced defects such as pitting corrosion, galvanic corrosion, and chemical etching.

This article addresses electrochemical methods for instantaneous rate determination and threshold determination as well as nonelectrochemical methods that can determine incremental or cumulative rates of corrosion. Electrochemical methods for the study of galvanic corrosion rates and localized corrosion and evaluation of corrosion rates under paints are also discussed. The article describes nonelectrochemical methods that can determine incremental or cumulative rates of corrosion. Methods presented include polarization methods, polarization resistance methods, electrochemical impedance methods, frequency modulation methods, electrochemical noise resistance, potential probe methods, cyclic potentiodynamic polarization methods, potentiostatic and galvanostatic methods, electrochemical noise (EN) methods, scratch-repassivation method, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Gravimetric determination of mass loss, electrical-resistance methods, magnetic methods, quartz crystal microbalance method, solution analysis methods, and metrological methods are nonelectrochemical methods. The article presents an electrochemical test that examines the susceptibility of stainless steel alloys to intergranular corrosion.

This article reviews the fundamentals of electrochemical corrosion test methods. The features and requirements of the instrumentation needed for an electrochemical test are briefly discussed. The article provides a discussion on the various electrochemical techniques and tests available for laboratory studies of corrosion phenomena. The techniques and tests include no-applied-signal tests, small-signal polarization tests, large-signal polarization tests, scanning electrode techniques, and miscellaneous techniques.