Surface Preparation and Pit Propagation in Stainless Steels

Abstract

A scanning reference electrode has been used to measure the number of active pits on 304 stainless steels in ferric chloride solution with time. The probability of a pit deactivating has been discussed in terms of the physical and chemical properties of solid oxide films over the pit which were originally on the steel and undermined by the dissolution process. The properties of these films were varied by different surface preparations.