Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is very interesting, I recommend publishing after minor revisions.

I suggest summurization of the corrosion factors  into a diagram.

Please, explain this "pitting corrosion and crevice corrosion."

Figure 2 should be better explained.

I also miss a deep explanation of bacterial nanowires.

Author Response

Response 1: Dear reviewer thank you for your valuable suggestion. This review paper explains the microbiologically influenced corrosion of ferrous alloys in marine environment. Corrosion factors are different in different environments based on what kind of corrosion is happening on the material surface. Summarization of the corrosion factors will generalize the topic. However, the factors affecting the MIC of the metals have been explained in the manuscript.

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. Pitting corrosion and crevice corrosion have been explained in the introduction part. 

Response 3: Thank you for your comments. A new paragraph has been added to explain Figure 2.

Response 4: Thank you for your comments. Explanation about bacterial nanowires has been added to the manuscript. Please refer to section 4 MIC based on bioenergetics and bio-electrochemistry.

Reviewer 2 Report

Paper: Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion Mechanism of Ferrous Alloys in Marine Environment its a review paper with results and findings in a special field of expertise  but with many applications and can be helpful for further studies. However I recommend the rejection of the material and resubmission after the authors restructure and add some new information’s, conclusions and further perspectives in the field. 

 

The main issues of this material are:

- a general organization of the main findings is necessary , the readers must understand the problems of actual applications and the researches applied till now; 

- a table with the main findings can be given with major problems still to be solve and solutions proposed by the cited authors or by this paper authors 

- more actual reports (only few references are from the last 5 years 2017-2022) 

- what are the new trends and what are the possible solutions for these type of problems 

Minor concerns:

L151-158 : align the eq. numbers 

In figures 2 provide scales for SEM images (b) and for images from a) - if possible 

Author Response

Response 1: Dear reviewer we thank you for your valuable suggestion. Problems caused by the MIC have been discussed in the introduction part. Different methods have been applied to eradicate MIC, including regular mechanical cleaning of the materials, using biocides to kill the bacteria and prevent the biofilm formation on the material surface, and eliminate the contact of the bacteria with the metallic substrate etc.

Response 2: Dear reviewer thank you for your comment. This is a small review submitted to a special issue. The main aims of this review were to summarize the different mechanisms of MIC. Our work in this field is still underway and our next paper will be focused on the major problems caused by MIC and their solutions will be discussed in detail.

Response 3: Thank you for your comments. Research papers related to this work were studied and have been cited in the manuscript.

Response 4: Researchers working on MIC are trying to find new ways to control corrosion of these alloys in different fields where different corrosion causing microorganisms are surviving. One of the best solutions is genetic manipulation of corrosion-causing microorganisms to better understand MIC mechanisms.

Response 5: Thank you for your suggestion. Equation numbers have been aligned.

Response 6: Thank you for your comments. We regret that we do not have scale bar for the SEM images in Figure 2.

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have provided a preliminary review on the MIC mechanism of ferrous alloys in marine environment. The authors have discussed different corrosion MIC mechanisms including concentration polarization, corrosion due to microbial metabolites ( metabolites an extracellular electron transfer) and bioenergetics and bio-electrochemistry ( direct electron transfer and electron mediator). Though the authors have brought out this information in a clear manner, these mechanisms are very popular and does not provide any new insights to MIC of ferrous metals. My major comment is that this article does not bring any new information to the scientific community and can be regarded as just a preliminary review manuscript which can help undergraduate students to get introductory information on MIC.

 

Minor comments

 

Grammatical and other miscellaneous errors  in the manuscript. For example-

 

1.       Abstract should be rewritten as it does have formal text. For example, in this below text, the use of “ Up till now” is not considered formal . Instead the word like “ To date” can be used

 

“ Up till now, MIC of a number of metallic ….”

 

2.       Figure 1. Biofilm formation and pitting corrosion on the surface of carbon steel measured by SEM. SEM images are just optical which “show” pitting due to MIC.

 

3.       Figure 2 , SEM images does not show scale.

 

4.       Figure2c, the authors should mentions these are CSLM (??) images in the text

Author Response

Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion. The texts “up till now” has been changed to “To date”.

Response 2: Yes, Figure 1 represent the pitting corrosion of carbon steel.

Response 3: Thank you for your comment. We regret that we do not have the scale bars for the SEM images in Figure 2.

Response 4: Thank you for your comments. A paragraph has been added, describing Figure 2c. It has been mentioned that 2c is the CLSM result of marine bacteria immersed in bacterial medium for different times.

Reviewer 4 Report

Submission is ruther as semi-review on BIC using mainly the literature data regarding usual steels. It is understandly the term "ferrous alloys", in abstract "...as corrosion resistant ferrous alloys has been reported", but the text does not contain materials or analysis which would recognise BIC concerning just corrosion resistant ferrous alloys. It seems that authors consider even carbon steels as ferrous alloys and their review is buil on BIC of carbon and low alloyed steels but not orrosion resistant ferrous alloys.

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer thank you for your comments. This review is about the microbiologically influenced corrosion of metallic materials ranging from common steels to corrosion resistant steel alloys.  

Reviewer 5 Report

This seems a comprehensive review of marine MIC and should prove a useful source of reference to anyone interested in the subject. I suspect the Abstract and Introduction where perhaps a little more rushed than the main body of the manuscript and need re-checking for the English - much of it being associated with the use of articles (a, the).

Elsewhere, do check for terms that are either too colloquial (e.g. 'significantly' is a more appropriate term than 'very') or too formal (e.g. 'explain' is generally sufficient rather than 'elucidate'). 

Two specific comments - line 69  should be 'for' not 'or', and line 411 where something has gone wrong with the authors.

Finally, I think you could probably make more of the Conclusions which would benefit from a little more thought and detail.

I am sure all these comments can be addressed quite easily.

 

Author Response

Response 1: Thank you for your comments. The language has been polished again.

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. The sentences have been modified.

Response 3: Thank you for your comments. Yes it’s ‘for’ not ‘or’. The author name “Ćwiek, J” is right.

Response 4: Thank you for your suggestion. The conclusion has been modified.

Response 5: Thank you for your comments. Hope your concerns have been fully addressed.

 

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The review paper still has deficiencies in the presentation of the field of interest: the answers of points 1-3 are not enough, they have barely been addressed  (The main issues of this material are:

- a general organization of the main findings is necessary , the readers must understand the problems of actual applications and the researches applied till now; 

- a table with the main findings can be given with major problems still to be solve and solutions proposed by the cited authors or by this paper authors 

- more actual reports (only few references are from the last 5 years 2017-2022) ) 

Please mark on the article the modiffication you made to References section 

The authors have not made any significant changes to the paper and at this stage are still against publication in the journal Metals

Author Response

Point 1: A general organization of the main finding is necessary. The readers must understand the problems of actual applications and the researches applied till now.

Response 1: Dear reviewer we thank you for your valuable suggestion. A paragraph explaining the main findings of the researchers have been added to the manuscript. Please refer to the Line 85 to Line 92.

Point 2: A table with the main findings can be given with major problems still to be solved and solutions proposed by the cited authors or by this paper authors.

Response 2: Dear reviewer thank you for your comment. A table of the main findings has been added, please refer to Table 1.   

Point 3: More actual reports (only few references are from the last 5 years 2017-2022).

Response 3: Thank you for your comments. New references and the research work published during last 5 years is highlighted in yellow in the manuscript.

Point 4: Please mark on the article the modiffication you made to References section.

Response 4: Thank you for your comments. The modification has been highlighted in yellow in the manuscript.

Reviewer 4 Report

Article is really the review, it should be especially drawn.

Common steels are less sensitive to pitting corrosion in comparison with the corrosion resistant alloys and such difference evidently causes a difference in connecting with it MIC, such aspect should be deeply analysed.

Please consider in your review the article . Diagnostics of the Surfaces of 20 аnd 17G1S-U Steels Corrosion Damaged by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria. Mater Sci 56, 697–705 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11003-021-00485-7 , maybe you will find it interesting.

Author Response

Point 1 : Common steels are less sensitive to pitting corrosion in comparison with the corrosion resistant alloys and such difference evidently causes a difference in connecting with it MIC, such aspect should be deeply analysed.                                                                                        

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comments. MIC of the common steels and corrosion resistant alloys (stainless steels) has been explained. Please refer to Line 42 to Line 58.

Point 2: Please consider in your review the article Polutrenko, М.S., Маrushchak, P.О., Bishchak, R.Т. et al. Diagnostics of the Surfaces of 20 аnd 17G1S-U Steels Corrosion Damaged by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria. Mater Sci 56, 697–705 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11003-021-00485-7, maybe you will find it interesting.

Response 2: Thank you for recommending the article. It’s really useful.

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Publish in the current state 

Author Response

We thank you for your careful screening of the manuscript and insightful comments. We appreciate your efforts in improving the quality of our manuscript.