Progress in Research of Pitting Corrosion Behavior and Research Methods of Stainless Steels

The nucleation mechanism, growth, repassivation of metastable pits, the critical conditions of transforming metastable pits to stable pits, the growth of stable pits under different conditions and research methods are reviewed in this paper. The criterion of metastable pit nucleation and the mechanism of repassivation, as well as the mechanism, kinetics and geometry of pits corrosion remain to be studied further. Effective methods will be needed to improve the research of pitting behaviors and pit developing rules.