Does chromium oxide form on Stainless-steel in 'deoxygenated' water? Will a passive layer form on stainless-steel in pure (0.055 μS/cm) water with an oxygen concentration &lt; 50 ppb. If so, why is this type of water generally called 'deoxygenated'? If a passive layer (chromium oxide) does not form with such low oxygen concentration why is this, since there IS still oxygen in the water.
From a practical standpoint, once the stainless steel item is made the passive layer immediately begins to form. Passivation with acids is a process used to accelerate this process and have parts ready to use in a shorter period of time. So if you have any high quality SS parts, they will come to you with the passive layer already developed. 

Theoretically speaking, if a completely naked section of stainless was put into this "pure water", there would still be some oxide formation because the specification of &lt;50 ppb still allows for some oxygen to be present. However, this should not have any practical implications. I suspect the name "deoxygenated water" is used to indicate there was a conscious process used to reach such a low amount of free oxygen in the water but not to claim o% free oxygen content.