Figure 3
Representative illustrations of the height evolution of the steel surface following exposure to 100 mM NaCl for: (a) 0 h, (b) 0.2 h, (c) 0.7 h, and (d) 3.7 h. The corresponding gradient maps are shown in (e) to (h), respectively. The end of the “dormant period” is marked by the development of circular basins around an initially formed isolated pit (b,f). Significant pit nucleation and growth is observed within these basins initially, after which pit formation proceeds near-uniformly across the entire surface (d,h).
