Response to Comments on E. Huttunen-Saarivirta et al., "Kinetic Properties of the Passive Film on Copper in the Presence of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria" [J. Electrochem. Soc., 165, C450 (2018)]

• Published in: Journal of the Electrochemical Society Vol. 166; no. 10; pp. Y17 - Y26
• Main Authors: Huttunen-Saarivirta, E., Rajala, P., Carpén, L., Wang, J., Liu, F., Ghanbari, E., Mao, F., Dong, C., Yang, J., Sharifi-Asl, S., Macdonald, D. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Electrochemical Society 2019
• ISSN: 0013-4651; 1945-7111
• DOI: 10.1149/2.0771910jes

The Comments by Martino et al.1 on the original manuscript2 criticize our interpretation of the existence and properties of the Cu2S barrier layer of the passive film that forms on the surface of copper in SRB-bearing groundwater at 10°C. First, it is necessary to recognize that this discussion involves two forms of copper, which we refer to as "pure copper (P-Cu)" (nominally > 99.999%) and "oxygen-free phosphorous copper (OFP-Cu)". P-Cu has been used in the majority of our work3-6 with only some of our later work employing OFP-Cu,2 a point that does not seem to be appreciated by Martino et al.1 On the other hand, the Shoesmith group appears to have concentrated exclusively upon OFP-Cu, at least in recent years.7-11 This difference is of crucial importance in responding to the critique by Martino et al.1