ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomaterials
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Functional Materials for Disease Diagnosis, Drug Delivery and Tissue Repair, Volume IIView all articles
Long-Term Continuous Corrosion of 316L Stainless Steel by Streptococcus mutans in Simulated Oral Environment
Provisionally accepted
- Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The widespread application of metallic biomaterials in oral healthcare has raised increasing concerns regarding their long-term corrosion behavior under complex microbial environments, which remains insufficiently understood. In this study, we systematically investigated the microbiologically influenced corrosion of 316L stainless steel (SS) induced by the cariogenic Streptococcus mutans over a 90-day continuous anaerobic immersion period. The results revealed progressive biofilm development on the 316L SS surface, with a maximum thickness of 88.1 ± 9.0 μm on day 90. Comprehensive electrochemical analyses demonstrated that S. mutans markedly accelerated the corrosion process. Potentiodynamic polarization tests showed a substantial increase in corrosion current density from 21.7 ± 0.4 nA cm‒2 under sterile conditions to 6.4 ± 0.2 μA cm‒2 in S. mutans-inoculated media. The acidogenic metabolism of S. mutans led to cyclic drops in pH, fostering a locally aggressive environment that promoted pitting corrosion with a maximum depth of 5.3 μm at 90 d. Atomic force microscopy revealed increased surface potential heterogeneity, suggesting disruption of the passive film integrity. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis further indicated a marked decline in protective chromium and nickel oxides within the corrosion products. These findings provide critical insights into the long-term degradation mechanisms of oral biomedical alloys and offer a theoretical basis for developing effective MIC mitigation strategies.
Keywords: Oral environment, Long-term corrosion, Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Streptococcus mutans, 316L stainless steel
Received: 15 Oct 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Liu, Chen, Bai, Li, Wang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhong Li, lizhong@mail.neu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.