Reinforced Superhydrophobic Anti-Corrosion Epoxy Resin Coating by Fluorine–Silicon–Carbide Composites
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Overall, the study is fine from an academic point of view. Industrial organic coatings normally employ multiple fillers/extenders so this paper reporting study with just one type of filler/extender deals with a basic research.
There are several English language mistakes. I have highlighted them in the attached file. Therefore, I strongly recommend to remove those language issues before considering the article publishable.
All my comments/questions at different sections of the article can be found in the attached file.
One more comment is to add the oil absorption value of SiC and F-SiC if the authors have measured it or if they have received it from the supplier.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Zhang et.al. report on the fabrication of an anti-corrosive superhydrophobic coating via the deposition of fluorine modified silica carbide-epoxy resin composite. After literature research in the databases of most of the reputable publishers, I have to admit that there are not many articles considering the fabrication of superhydrophobic materials by combining silica carbide and epoxy resin. In fact, I found none, so from that point-of-view the article has merit. However, I believe the authors will have to rethink the scientific message they want to convey prior to seeing their manuscript published.
1) “SiC is modified by fluorine-containing organic substance 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-trifluoro-noctyltriethoxysilane (FAS), which changes it from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic nanoparticles, and explores how to make SiC reach the best conditions for superhydrophobicity.” – the substance itself cannot explore anything. Please rewrite this sentence in a way ensuring clarity.
2) “However, although the epoxy resin has excellent corrosion resistance, high adhesion and low price, the high brittleness and low shrinkage of solvent-based epoxy resin coatings produced many micropores and cracks, which is not conducive to inhibit the penetration of corrosive media” – I don’t think this is the primary reason. In my opinion, the reason is that epoxy is hydrophilic, so the liquids maintain firm contact with the epoxy surface, thus, accelerating the corrosion processes. The main consequence of superhydrophobicity, for example, is that the liquid-solid interaction forces are minimized and virtually very weak, thus, the wetting and subsequent corrosion are inhibited.
3) “So how to add nano-SiC to EP with good compatibility for the composite coating is a big challenge.” – well, this is not entirely true, because the published literature considers the incorporation of SiC in EP - I recommend to include in the introduction section a comprehensive and general explanation on what are the benefits of authors’ approach in the context of existing knowledge. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021998315576378 ; https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/9/8/1159
4) “Based on the above studies, the composite material of superhydrophobic modification SiC with EP is a useful additive for improving anti-corrosion performance, but the studies of superhydrophobic EP coating were relative lack…” – incorrect statement. Please read and appropriately cite the following literature sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167577X19305282; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/46/34/345307; https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/ra/c8ra10046b#!divAbstract;
5) Everywhere in the text, the authors talk about superhydrophobicity, but the experimental data reveal only the static contact angle values. These values alone are not enough for claiming superhydrophobicity of the surface (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001868609001055; ). So, the values of the contact angle hysteresis and/or roll-off angle are mandatory.
6) “The H-OH was considered as the introduction of adsorbed water on SiC surface.” – if the surface is indeed superhydrophobic, the high nucleation energy barrier endows the solid with low water adsorption capacity.
7) “FAS is chemically bonded to SiC powder successfully” – what is the type of bonding, covalent or?
8) “On the other hand, nanofillers can play a lubricating effect in the resin, so that the friction between the coating and the friction pair mainly occurs between the solid lubricating film layers.” – in my opinion, this statement is incorrect. The superhydrophobic wetting state converts the surface into quasi-frictionless due to the very small solid-liquid contact area, resulting from the hydrophobic surface chemistry and laboratory micro- nanoroughening. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/nn102557p;
9) 1d, 5d – 1 day, 5 days?
10) “First of all, the hydrophobic modification of SiC was very successful, and super-hydrophobic
SiC was successfully prepared.” - inappropriate claims - where is the reference level for unsuccessful or highly successful?
11) The manuscript’s quality will enhance substantially if the authors increase the scientific input of the content. In other words, instead of only reporting the observations, it will be good to compare the outcome with the anti-corrosion performance of similar materials available in the literature.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have made a good attempt to address all comments and concerns raised during the first round of peer review. The manuscript has improved accordingly and it seems to be already publishable in Coatings. However, i would very kindly like to emphasize on the English language - there are still some passages in the text, where the grammar is incorrect. Please pay attention to the style during the proofing stage. In addition, reference 44 (the work of Mishchenko et.al.) has been improperly cited on page 7, lines 238-240 in the revised manuscript. Please fix this obvious mistake.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
