Effect of Copper Powder Modification and Silver Content on Coating Adhesion and Corrosion Resistance of Silver-Coated Copper Powder

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors, thank you for contribution to the research in material science with the manuscript which contains many results obtained with various techniques such as SEM, XRD, corrosion testing etc. here are some comments from the reviewer in order to increase the quality of presented manuscript:

1.) Lines 92 ....In section Alkaline cleaning. Authors are suggested to add temperature in which was cleaning performed. This small detail may be important and can have influence on the process if temperature dependence would be examined on its quality.  

2.) Lines 118: „dissolve it with an appropriate amount of deionized water“ Authors are recommended to specify amount of deionized water in the whole paragraph 114-128 as it might serve as a basis for other research studies. 

3.) Lines 142-148 : Corrosion studies: Suggestion from reviewer: If possible, please add, detail of the sample area. Also how the sample was prepared when you are dealing with balls dimensions around μm and in many corrosion setups (e.g biologic corrosion cells)  the area of the tested specimens is around 1cm². These details might be beneficial and could increase quality of presented manuscript. Similarly, OCP stabilization is also important factor. If the samples were immersed 1h or 48hours. Authors are suggested to add these details 

4.) In the section 3.3.3. Corrosion Resistance 
Authors discussed results from Potendiodynamic polarization (PDP, Tafel plots) however in the previous section 2.4. Performance Testing and Characterization there is no description of this method, only EIS. Authors are therefore suggested to add information about this technique: including polarization range, OCP time stabilization. These are relevant data when comparing results with other studies. 
Authors are suggested to be inspired by the following reference where the details EIS, PDP techniques are explained in detail: 
Štrbák, M., Kajánek, D., Knap, V., Florková, Z., Pastorková, J., Hadzima, B., & Goraus, M. (2022). Effect of plasma electrolytic oxidation on the short-term corrosion behaviour of AZ91 magnesium alloy in aggressive chloride environment. Coatings, 12(5), 566.

5.) Authors are suggested to complete the table 4 with the information of the electrolyte resistance as it is also counted in the sum of all resistances. This information might provide other researchers with valuable data. 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript "Effect of Copper Powder Modification and Silver Content on Coating Adhesion and Corrosion Resistance of Silver-Coated Copper Powder" presents the properties of modified copper powders with aim of investigating an influence on electroless silver plating. The topic itself is interesting and relevant for scientific and industrial community. However, the manuscript needs extensive improvment if it is to be considered for publication.

1. In Abstract, the main results should be briefly, but quanitiativelty presented.
2. In line 42, there is statament that copper powder preparation can be divided into three categories, but only two are listed.
3. Subchapters 2.2. and 2.3. should be rewritten, since they sound like recipes.
4. In lines 105-112, circled numbers should be removed.
5.  In 2.4. – how were the samples prepared for each specific measurement/analysis method?
6. Figure 2 is only an illustration. Statement in lines 157-158 should be backed-up with concrete data or reference. In Figure 2 title, „characteristics“ should be replaced with „appearance“.
7. Was deionized water used for contact angle measurements? At what temperature were the measurements performed, and how many drops were applied on each sample? What was the time delay from the drop-surface initial contact and contact angle measurement?
8. FTIR analysis needs referencing. Furthermore, the spectra should be baseline-corrected, because ofvthe statement on increased intensity of specific peaks. Peak intensity should be quantitatively analyzed in relation to chosen peak that does not undergo changes.
9. Surface free energy was not calculated in this work, yet repeated statements on it are given throughout the manuscript.
10. Effects of surface roughness on surface free energy should be addressed.
11. In 3.3.1., discussion and statements should be backed up by relevant references.
12. EIS spctroscopy results should be interpreted in context of the costing proerties with more depth. References should be included, especially in paragraph in lines 350-360.
13. Generally, figures and tables are not exhaustively analyzed and discussed with sufficient details, which would add scientific tone and relevance to the results.
14. Conclusion is not well supportes by the results, for example – surface free energy of prepared surfaces was not given in the manuscript.
15. Data availability statement says thar no datasets were generated during the study.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have made an effort to address all the comments and have significantly improved the manuscript in all required sections. The only remaining task is to polish the English, as the added text could benefit from language improvements. For example, the authors have included descriptions in response to my Comment 5 from the first review round, but that text is again not written in the passive voice.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf