Influence of Fluoride and Stress on the Electrochemical Properties of Nickel-Titanium Coils

INFLUENCE OF FLUORIDE AND STRESS ON THE ELECTROCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF NICKEL-TITANIUM COILS Ashley Barnes Marquette University, 2015 The aim of this study was to examine the effects of fluoride and stress on the electrochemical properties of nickel-titanium coils. Forty Dentsply GAC NiTi coils were divided into four groups of ten and individually tested. Twenty coils were placed in a solution of artificial saliva, where ten of the twenty were compressed and the other ten were not stressed. The other twenty coils were placed in a 1500 ppm NaF solution, where ten were compressed and ten were not. The coils were connected to a computer driven potentiostat and three tests were conducted: open circuit potential monitoring for 2 hours, a linear polarization scan, and a cyclic polarization test. The results showed the coils to possess a more noble OCP when in artificial saliva compared to fluoride. The noncompressed, artificial saliva group possessed the greatest polarization resistance (p<0.05), while that group and the compressed, artificial saliva group displayed a significantly (p<0.05) lower corrosion current density. Overall, it appeared fluoride had a greater detrimental effect than did stress when considering electrochemical properties