Microstructure, Mechanical Properties, and Reinforcement Mechanism of Second-Phase Reinforced TiC-Based Composites: A Review
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper introduced a feasible review of the effect of reinforcing the TiC matrix with carbides, nitrides, and metal reinforced, the present paper is interesting, however, to be accepted for publication the following comments need to be addressed
- Major English changes are required in the revised manuscript
Introduction
- The introduction section needs to be improved. the authors stated that “TiC material has lower raw material cost” it is recommended to add a comparative study regarding the cost of different carbides, why is TiC more attractive rather than other carbides regarding the material costs and manufacturing costs?
- In addition, absolute descriptions are not recommended. For example, the authors stated that” high conductivity [1], good chemical corrosion resistance [2] and wear resistance [3].” The description should be relative. What is the scale of wear corrosion resistance? How did you consider the wear and corrosion resistance good or poor? I recommend you make a comparative study between TiC and other ceramics regarding all these criteria (in Table)
- Figure 1 needs to be modified. Please locate here the TiC ceramic. Indicate its melting temperature and density. For more sensing, you can locate in this figure the most popular boride, nitride, and carbide compounds.
Application of titanium carbide and its composites
- This sentence is highly repeated in this review ”TiC ceramics have excellent properties of high-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and high chemical stability” I recommend deleting it.
Effects of added phase on microstructure and mechanical properties
- The provided table 1, is well organized and informative.
The caption of figure 9 needs to be modified. Please add the caption of Figures 9 a, and b
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The review work entitled “Microstructure, mechanical properties, and reinforcement mechanism of second phase reinforced TiC-based composites: A review” by Zhang et al., describes about the importance of TiC as a reinforcement material for the development of mechanically resistant composites. The authors covered the properties associated with various other substituents like Si, C, nitrides, and metals when available with that of TiC. The following points needs to be addressed before the manuscript gets accepted for the publication.
1. English grammatical errors are appearing all over the manuscript. The authors need to check the data for English proficiency.
2. The authors need to include some new topics to discuss the types, importance, and uses of novel microstructures formed by the addition of other elements to the TiC composite.
3. Some subsections have to be included to discuss separately the characteristic changes that may occur to the TiC composites due to reinforcement.
4. The data provided by the authors in terms of a review is too low and so needs to strengthen by including synthesis methods, each methods advantage and disadvantages, types of microstructure that each method can generate, etc
5. Factors influencing the properties, microstructure, and uses of TiC composite have to be added.
6. since the title specifically mentioned about the mechanical properties of TiC composites, but the manuscript don’t have much information on the mechanical properties like Tensile strength, compressive tests, fatigue tests, Torsion tests, Nick break tests, creep tests, elongation, young’s modulus etc to be discussed.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have addressed all comments. The revised paper can be accepted in its current form.
Reviewer 2 Report
I see that significant changes were made to the manuscript as compared to its first version. Therefore, I promote this manuscript for the final publication in the present format.
