Bioenergy Generation and Wastewater Purification with Li0.95Ta0.76Nb0.19Mg0.15O3 as New Air-Photocathode for MFCs
, Abdellah Benzaouak 1, Jamil Toyir 2, Adnane El Hamidi 3, Mohammed El Mahi 1, El Mostapha Lotfi 1, Mohamed Kacimi 3 and Leonarda Francesca Liotta 4,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In this manuscript, the authors evaluated the bioenergy generation and wastewater purification performances of Mg-modified LiNb1-xTaxO3(x=0.8) as a cathode component in a single-chamber Microbial Fuel Cells under sunlight irradiation and without a light source. In general, this paper is well organized, and all the data presented are appropriate. I believe the manuscript will attract a wide readership of Catalysts. However, the manuscript still needs some minor revisions before publication.
1. The electrochemical surface area (ECSA) is very important to the catalytic process. The authors should present ECSA values of LiNb1-xTaxO3.
2. I noticed that there are three phases in Figure 7a. The authors can provide more details on how to distinguish these phases.
3. In Figure 9, the rate of COD removal seems to slow down with time in the presence and absence of a light source. I wonder if the durability of catalysts may account for this phenomenon. The author can give more analysis to identify the reason.
4. There are some language errors in the article. For example, in the section Power performance in air-cathode MFCs, the units, such as mA/cm2, should be subscripted as mA/cm2. In Figure 7, the dots in “mW. m-2” & “mA. m-2”should be removed. Also, either mA/cm2 or mA cm-2 is acceptable, but the units in the manuscript should keep format uniformity. The authors should re-check the language throughout their manuscript to avoid such errors.
Author Response
We would like to thank the reviewer for valuable comments. Attached are the responses.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
I have carefully read this paper entitled with “Bioenergy Generation and Wastewater Purification with Li 0.95 Ta0.76 Nb0.19 Mg 0.15 O3 as new air-photocathode for MFCs». The subject is interesting and meaningful. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has emerged as a new and attractive bioelectrochemical approach in the last one and a half decade that offers an alternative to conventional treatment methods to remove and recover heavy metals and organics from wastewaters with simultaneous energy production.
I have only a few questions that the authors should address before it is accepted for publication:
1. What mechanism do you propose of heavy metal removal?
2. Composition of anolyte and catholyte.
3. What is the specific power Illumination of the photocathode?
4. What photoactivity directly 2Li0.95Ta0.76Nb 0.19 Mg 0.15 O3 air-photocathode? Are there such measurements?
5. What are the conditions for pressing the photocathode?
6. What is the stability of the Nafion membrane during long-term testing?
7. What kind of microbes are in the cell?
8. I also recommend referring to one of the latest publications on the subject of the manuscript. Zhicheng Xu et al. New insights in light-assisted microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment and power generation: A win-win cooperation. Journal of Power Sources 501 (2021) 230000.
Author Response
We would like to thank the reviewer for valuable comments. Attached are the responses.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
