An air-formed or anodic oxide film was detached from titanium by chemical etching in brominemethanol electrolyte, exposing the bare titanium substrate and grain boundaries with defects at specific regions. Without the protective air-formed TiO2 film, pitting corrosion occurred on the bare titanium substrate due to the attack of bromine. The corrosion pits propagated with etching time from 10 to 300 s and were displayed using white light interferometry. Increased surface roughness was identified with etching time due to the increase of pitting corrosion attack. TiBr4 compounds were detected by EDS and X-ray diffraction patterns, indicating that the dissolution of the titanium substrate was induced in each etching treatment. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.