Abstract
The dental orthodontic wire provides a good combination of strength, corrosion resistance and moderate cost. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of TiN and ZrN coating on corrosion resistance and physical property of orthodontic wire using various instruments. Wires(round type and rectangular type) were used, respectively, for experiment. Ion plating was carried out for wire using Ti and Zr coating materials with nitrogen gas. Ion plated surface of each specimen was observed with field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS), atomic force microscopy(AFM), vickers hardness tester, and electrochemical tester. The surface of TiN and ZrN coated wire was more smooth than that of other kinds of non-coated wire. TiN and ZrN coated surface showed higher hardness than that of non-coated surface. The corrosion potential of the TiN coated wire was comparatively high. The current density of TiN coated wire was smaller than that of non-coated wire in 0.9% NaCl solution. Pit nucleated at scratch of wire. The pitting corrosion resistance $|E_{pit}-E_{rep}|$ increased in the order of ZrN coated(300 mV), TiN coated(120 mV) and non-coated wire(0 mV).