Effect of Pressurized Hydrothermal Treatment on the Properties of Cellulose Amorphous Region Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The topic of the research work and manuscript is really interesting and provides new information. However there are several issues to be addressed towards its quality improvement before thinking of publication. The sentence in lines 30-32 should be improved, since it does not follow a logical order as well as the next sentence "Natural wood must therefore be altered" which seems to be childish and I wonder is there any material of non-natural wood?. In lines 34-35, rephrase to improve syntax. In lines 39, add https://doi.org/10.5552/drvind.2021.2026 as a reference to support your statement concerning the changes in chemical composition of thermally modified wood. Leave a space between the value and degrees of celcius units. In line 46, please provide references. In line 50, you refer "camphor pine and Quercus". Try to refer either to scientific or the common name of species used. In line 51, in Qi et al., provide as well the year of publication. In line 53, please specify the "high temperatures and pressure". In line 55, the first letter of the first name of the author should be removed. In description of state-of-the-art in introduction section you do not refer previous attempts to utilize Molecular dynamics simulation methodology. Which were the findings provided by them? The introduction fails to explain why the interest should be focused on pressurized hydrothermal treatment, compared to other types of modification methods of wood. Since there are tremendous structural differences between hardwoods and softwood species, you should specify in materials-methods the species simulated or type of wood simulated and where did the model based on.  Was there any kind of validation of the method using real-measurements of a real modified wood species? There are only few references in this study given the richness of literature on this topic and the majority of the references/literature originate from regional specific area/country (one sided origin of literature, Japan, China).

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors.

1.      Highlight your contribution to the topic at the end of the conclusions. May be, on the basis of cited literature, emphasize your contribution. What is new in your results?

2.      Your title mentioned wood properties, but you take into consideration only amorphous part of cellulose with several water molecules included.

3.      You directly assigned: amorphous = isotropic (two independent Lamé constants) – why?

4.      Figure 5. Explain, how density is the property of the model?

5.      Row 283. G is not stiffness in any shear loading of wood.

6. Take into consideration if Angstrom is necessary unit of length, write conversion to SI unit (somewhere in the contribution).

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

As I have checked the authors have implemented the proposed changes in the revised verion of manuscript towards the improvement of their work. Almost all the changes have been implemented and in my opinion, the manuscript is well-prepared and organized enough to be accepted for publication in this journal. I remain at your disposal for any clarification.

 

Author Response

Thank you for the time and effort you have put into the manuscript. Your patience and quality advice helped us a lot and we learned a lot in the process of improving the paper. Thank you again! We wish you good health and happiness!

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

your contribution did not change substantially. There are a lot of wood properties, which indicate that molecular or nano level of wood structure are unique and are not alone for recognizing wood properties values. Some your ideas, which are written at the end of introduction, should be replaced to the conclusions (lines 97-99). In general, wood is anisotropic, on the other hand, amorphous cellulose is isotropic. Take into consideration this fact. You should change your results according to the scope of your declare aims (lines 91-95). Please, also reconsider the title of your contribution (for the same reason).

Author Response

Please refer to the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx