“…AFM is a powerful technique to investigate the surface morphology at nano-to microscale and has become a new choice to study the influence of inhibitor on the generation and the progress of the corrosion at the metal/solution interface [36][37][38]. The three-dimensional (3D) AFM morphologies and the AFM cross-sectional profile for polished carbon steel surface (reference sample), carbon steel surface immersed in sea water (blank sample), and carbon steel surface immersed in sea water containing the formulation of 8 mL of HE and 25 ppm of Zn 2+ are shown in Figure 7 images (a, d, g), (b, e, h), (c, f, i), respectively.…”