No abstract

Many of the failures of total joint replacements are related to tribology, i.e., wear of the cup, head and liner. Accumulation of wear particles at the implants can be linked to osteolysis which leads to bone loss and in the end aseptic implant loosening. Therefore it is highly desirable to reduce the generation of wear particles from the implant surfaces. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) has shown to be biocompatible and have a low wear rate when sliding against itself and is therefore a good candidate as a hip joint material. Furthermore, wear particles of Si3N4 are predicted to slowly dissolve in polar liquids and they therefore have the potential to be resorbed in vivo, potentially reducing the risk for aseptic loosening. In this study, it was shown that α-Si3N4-powder dissolves in PBS. Adsorption of blood plasma indicated a good acceptance of Si3N4 in the body with relatively low immune response. Si3N4 sliding against Si3N4 showed low wear rates both in bovine serum and PBS compared with the other tested wear couples. Tribofilms were built up on the Si3N4 surfaces both in PBS and in bovine serum, controlling the friction and wear characteristics.

No abstract

The 3d core level photoemission of metallic Ag and In was measured over a wide energy range including the 2p ionization thresholds. The intensities (photoionization cross sections) of the 3d5/2 and 3d3/2 lines were observed to modulate significantly with photon energy, both absolute and relative, and this is most pronounced in the vicinity of the 2p thresholds, i.e., at photon energies about an order of magnitude above the 3d thresholds. Calculations based on the relativistic-random-phase approximation show that this effect is due to interchannel coupling of the 3d photoionization channels with the 2p channels affecting the cross section over a wide range of energies. It is argued that this is a general phenomenon in high-energy photoionization throughout the periodic table.