Influence of Test Parameters on the Evaluation of Chocolate Silkiness Using the Tribological Method
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments
1. A deep language check is needed.
2. Line 98, “The mixed fluids with the base liquid and the curing agent at a mass
ratio”, which are the fluids and liquid mentioned here? Please specify in the manuscript for more clarity of the sentence.
3. In figure.1 we can observe one image at the top right side. What it stands for? A description of this cannot be find in the manuscript. The figure title have to be update.
4. Line 117, “These mixed solutions were put into an incubator at 37 ℃ for a short time.” What is the purpose of this? Please complete the sentence with the need of this or add as a separate sentence please.
5. Line 131 and line 139 seems like contradictory. Please check that.
6. Line 181 “but not in a well strict rule.” The sentence seems to be vague, please modify.
7. Figure 5, the green color have to make more visible please.
8. Please modify the sentence of 338, 339 lines.
Author Response
Question 1: A deep language check is needed.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the review.
The authors ask for a native-English speaks’ help to revise the language of the current manuscript and marked with red fonts. The revised manuscript seems more readable.
Question 2: Line 98, “The mixed fluids with the base liquid and the curing agent at a mass ratio”, which are the fluids and liquid mentioned here? Please specify in the manuscript for more clarity of the sentence.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, Sylgard 184 Dow Corning, USA) was a kind of mature commodity and used widely in the field of soft materials. It consists of two parts, base liquid and the curing agent [s1]. The main composition of the base liquid is poly(dimethyl-methylvinylsiloxane), and the main composition of the curing agent is poly (dimethyl-methylhydrosiloxane).
[s1] Xie, K.W.; Li, Z.B.; Deng, Y.; Zhang, Q.; Zhong, S.Y.; Cai, J.J.; Chang, L.X. Stress-laser composite fabrication of right-angle microgrooves on polydimethylsiloxane flexible substrate. Polymer Materials Science and Engineering 2022, 38(3), 106-112.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have revised the relevant description to make it clearer. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, Sylgard 184 Dow Corning, USA) was widely used as the experimental material. It consists of base liquid and the curing agent [34]. The main composition of the base liquid is poly(dimethyl-methylvinylsiloxane), and the main composition of the curing agent is poly (dimethyl-methylhydrosiloxane). The mixture with the polydimethylsiloxane and the curing agent at a mass ratio of 20:1 and 10:1, were poured into a micro-convex and a round mold, respectively······”
[34] Xie, K.W.; Li, Z.B.; Deng, Y.; Zhang, Q.; Zhong, S.Y.; Cai, J.J.; Chang, L.X. Stress-laser composite fabrication of right-angle microgrooves on polydimethylsiloxane flexible substrate. Polymer Materials Science and Engineering 2022, 38(3), 106-112.
Question 3: In Figure.1 we can observe one image at the top right side. What it stands for? A description of this cannot be find in the manuscript. The figure title has to be update.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
The top right side in Figure 1 is about surface topography of soft PDMS. According to the reviewers' comments, the authors have added relevant descriptions to the title of Figure 1. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
Figure 1. Schematic of the wear tester with the PDMS and surface topography of soft PDMS.
Question 4: Line 117, “These mixed solutions were put into an incubator at 37 ℃ for a short time.” What is the purpose of this? Please complete the sentence with the need of this or add as a separate sentence please.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
The purpose that the authors put the mixed solution in an incubator at 37°C is mainly to simulate the oral environment of the chocolate, allowing better mixing of the chocolate with artificial saliva.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have added the relevant description to make it more readable. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······These mixed solutions were put into an incubator at 37 ℃ for a short time to simulate the oral environment of the chocolate and allow better mixing of the chocolate with artificial saliva. In addition, the DHR-2 rheometer (TA instruments, USA) was used to measure the viscosity of the mixed solutions as a function of shear rate at a constant temperature of 37 °C ······”
Question 5: Line 131 and line 139 seems like contradictory. Please check that.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
Figure 1 mainly depicts the schematic diagram of the rubbing test method of ceramic balls and soft PDMS using MFT-5000 wear tester. For the rubbing test of hard PDMS and soft PDMS, what the authors would like to describe is that the rubbing test method is similar to that in Figure 1. In the revised manuscript, the authors have revised the relevant description to make it more readable. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······The rubbing test method of hard-PDMS and soft-PDMS (named as Two-PDMS pair) was similar to that of Ball-PDMS pair. Only the ball was replaced with the hard-PDMS with a load of 2 N, and the other parameters and the experimental process were completely the same······”
Question 6: Line 181 “but not in a well strict rule.” The sentence seems to be vague, please modify.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have revised the relevant description to make it more readable. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······Therefore, the viscosity of the chocolate mixtures was related to the cocoa concentration, but they did not strictly conform to the same particular rule······”
Question 7: Figure 5, the green color has to make more visible please.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely understand the reviewer.
In Figure 5, the authors believed that the red and black lines can distinguish the difference of these results. but the reviewer gave me a very good advice in the future study. The green line will be preferentially used to characterize the variation of the research results.
Question 8: Please modify the sentence of 338, 339 lines.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have revised the relevant description about the sentence of 338, 339 lines to make it more readable. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······The similar results have been reported in other soft rubbing pairs [37, 40]. From the sensory evaluation of chocolate products, the lower aCoF is thought to be much closer to silkiness degree in the oral environment······”
“······In addition, the chocolate solution, containing several substances such as sugar and fat, was entered the contact area and mainly improved the adsorption performance of the rubbing surfaces······”
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Interesting study. No major breakthrough, but some interesting findings.
No major changes required.
Author Response
Question 1: Interesting study. No major breakthrough, but some interesting findings. No major changes required.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely understand the reviewer.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have tried their best to revised the relevant description marked in red fonts to make it more readable.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The author adopted the tribological method to detect the difference in the smoothness of three chocolates for the same brands and discussed the influence of test parameters on the evaluation of chocolate silkiness. It was highly proposed that 75% chocolate solutions using the Two-PDMS pair could be representative of the silky characteristic in oral processing at suitable test parameters. However, there are still some minor questions in the current manuscript, and the authors need to revise the manuscript to make it more readable. The manuscript can be probably considered for addressing the following questions.
1) In the section of “1 Introduction”, ‘come into the human beings’ sounds odd. It means 'become part of human'.
2) In the section of “2.1 Materials”, what is ' testing soft material'? Do you mean reference?
3) The author attempted to show the variation of correlation coefficient between the smoothness of chocolate solutions and their viscosities with shear rate in Fig. 3. However, they did not firstly make clear the correlation between the smoothness and viscosity of chocolate by fitting the smoothness data and viscosity data.
4) The 75% chocolate solution could be representative of the oral processing, and the author needs to further explain the reason.
Author Response
Question 1: In the section of “1 Introduction”, ‘come into the human beings’ sounds odd. It means 'become part of human'.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
According to the reviewer's suggestion, the authors revised the ‘come into the human beings’ to ‘become part of human’ in the revised manuscript. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······Since chocolate was first made from cocoa beans in the Olmec Civilization, chocolates become part of human gradually······”
Question 2: In the section of “2.1 Materials”, what is ' testing soft material'? Do you mean reference?
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
In the previous manuscript, the testing soft material mainly refers to the experimental material.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have revised the relevant description to make it more accurate. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“······Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, Sylgard 184 Dow Corning, USA) was used as the experimental material. The mixture with the polydimethylsiloxane and the curing agent at a mass ratio of 20:1 and 10:1 [34], were poured into a micro-convex and a round mold, respectively······”
Question 3: The author attempted to show the variation of correlation coefficient between the smoothness of chocolate solutions and their viscosities with shear rate in Fig. 3. However, they did not firstly make clear the correlation between the smoothness and viscosity of chocolate by fitting the smoothness data and viscosity data.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agrees with the reviewer.
In the previous manuscript, the concept about correlation coefficient is not clearly described here.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have added new description of “2.4 Correlation coefficient” in the section of ‘2 Materials and Methods’. The relevant description is marked in red fonts and listed as follows.
“2.4 Correlation coefficient
Correlation coefficient R2 is a characteristic parameter and can characterize the linear relationship index between two groups of variables. If the absolute value of R2 is approximately close to 1, it means that the correlation degree between two groups is much higher. If the absolute value of R2 approaches 0, the correlation degree between two groups is greatly weaker. Moreover, if R2 is much closer to 1, they are positively related. Whereas, if R2 is much closer to -1, they are negatively related. In this current study, the Corrcoef Function of MatLab software was employed to investigate the related degree between the smoothness of three kinds of chocolate solutions and their viscosity or aCoF under the same operation conditions, and the effects of their rheological and lubricating properties on the corresponding smoothness were further evaluated.”
Question 4: The 75% chocolate solution could be representative of the oral processing, and the author needs to further explain the reason.
Answer: Thanks for the comment, and the authors completely agree with the reviewer.
The authors deeply investigated the variation in aCoF of chocolate solutions with different mass ratios, and discussed the correlation coefficient between chocolate silkiness and aCoF. The results indicated that the 75% chocolate solution was more favorable for evaluating the difference in silkiness. Moreover, 75% chocolate solution was also used to study the variation in aCoF and the correlation coefficient of the mixed solution at three cocoa concentrations under load or speed. Finally, it was concluded that the 75% chocolate solution at 2 N and 1 mm/s using double PDMS pairs can mostly represent the silky properties in oral processing. The relevant description is marked in red font and listed as follows.
“······Chocolate percentage, rubbing pair, load and speed played a high role in the correlation coefficient of chocolate silkiness with the aCoFs. Moreover, it was thought that the 75% chocolate solutions at 2 N and 1 mm/s using the Two-PDMS pair could be rapidly representative of the silky characteristic in the oral processing······”
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
