Revealing the Enhanced Passivation and Anti-Corrosion Performance of Surface-Nanocrystallization-Modified Cr-Alloyed Rebar via Electrochemical Testing and XPS Depth Analysis
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript entitled "Revealing the enhanced passivation and anti-corrosion performance of the surface-nanocrystallization modified Cr-alloyed rebar via electrochemical testing and XPS depth analysis" presents very interesting for the Cr-alloyed materials for anti-corrosion. Some minor questions must be addressed:
1) As in the experimental section authors did not specified the type of sputtering gun, I assumed that this is standard Ar+ (not a cluster) gun. The fast sputtering rate also suggests high potentil (15 kv?). All these paperameters should be specified
2) As mentioned above, I assumed that the authors used Ar+ gun with high energy. In these conditions ofter the preferential sputtering of oxygen might happen. And you increase the Me/O ratio by sputtering. How can you comment to this? Any additional proves that the decreaseing oxygen is not an artefact?
3) The assingments on the Figs are too small, enlarge fonts
4) I assume that FWHM for some peaks are too broad.
Author Response
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Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript presents an interesting study about the corrosion behaviour of the surface-nanocrystallization modified Cr-alloyed rebar. However, the paper needs major revisions before it is processed further, some comments follow:
Abstract:
The abstract must be improved. The abstract must contain information about:
- Background: Please highlight the novelty of the study;
- Methods: Describe briefly the main methods used to obtain and characterize the coating.
- Results and conclusions: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations, and also add some quantitative results.
Introduction section
In the introduction section, a comprehensive and exhaustive review of the state of the art in the field of the study must be provided.
Experimental
Rename this section into Materials and methods.
Line 84-85, please introduce the chemical composition into a table.
Line 106. Please introduce information about the software used to extract and process the data.
Results and discussion
EIS results. Please introduce the equivalent circuit for the studied samples.
Table 2. Please calculate the corrosion rate and introduce the values in the table. Also, introduce the polarization resistance and discuss the values. See an example: DOI: 10.3390/ma13153410
References
Are too many self-citations. Please remove the unnecessary ones.
English language and style are fine/minor spell check required
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript may be accepted in the present form
Author Response
Thank you very much for your affirmation of our work.
Reviewer 4 Report
1) Line 159, add the PDF information from where the diffractogram information was compared to obtain the crystallographic information.
2) Revise Table 1 column fitting.
3) For Table 2, the statistical analysis should be presented.
4) Revise Table 3 and 4 column fitting.
5) An SEM image makes it impossible to “see” the nanostructured grains; please revise the text and find the adequate technique to prove this statement.
6) How the TEM analysis was carried out. Figure 12 seems low quality, and the microstructure characteristic is difficult to observe.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript can be published in the present form.
