Enhancing Polyphenols and Tannins Concentration on Cotton Dyed with Red Tea

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

 

1-    Is there any difference between the commonly used black tea and the red tea used in this study? If yes, please explain the difference in the introduction part to avoid confusion.

2-    There are several papers on application of chitosan on cotton and its natural dyeing which have not been cited in this manuscript. It is recommended to fully review the relevant published literature and highlight the novelty of your work. The following are some suggestions for citation:

a.     https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-018-8657-2

b.     https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12101519

c.       Bou-Belda, E., Indrie, L., Ilies, D. C., Hodor, N., Berdenov, Z., Herman, G., & Caciora, T. (2020). Chitosan–a non-invasive approach for the preservation of historical textiles. Industria Textila, 71(6), 576-579.

d.     Buyukakinci, Y. B., Guzel, E. T., & Karadag, R. (2021). Organic cotton fabric dyed with dyer's oak and barberry dye by microwave irradiation and conventional methods. Industria Textila, 72(1), 30-38.

3-    Lines 113-118, how chitosan can react with cellulose at 150 ⁰C without any crosslinker or catalyst? Is there any evidence that there is a reaction between them at this temperature?

4-    It is recommended to add a figure showing the natural dye used (before extraction), the extract, and the chemical structures of the coloring compounds found in it. Also, it is recommended to add a figure showing the mechanism of binding of cotton, chitosan, and natural dye schematically.

5-    Line 234, despite your discussion, I think the adsorption and diffusion of the polyphenols on both cotton samples are not fast, because about 85% of the dye is remained in the dyebath after 45 min of dyeing. Even the final exhaustion is very similar in both cases. I suggest to calculate and report the exhaustion % instead of the remaining polyphenols in the wastewater. Line 247-251, need correction. The speed of hydrolysable tannins absorbed by differ considerably. I think it is better to draw the exhaustion vs time for polyphenols, hydrolysable tannins, and condensed tannins to better compare the rate of adsorption of each component.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Dear reviewer,

We acknowledge the time devoted to revise our manuscript. 

Find attached a document with detailed answers to every point you remarked. 

Yours sincerely

M. Bonet

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In this manuscript, chitosan was used as mordant to dye cotton fabrics with red Camellia Sinensis extracts, and the effect of chitosan on the dyeing process was studied by comparative experiments. Overall, there is a clear message in the manuscript. However, the manuscript requires major revision prior to publication due to some flaws and unclear information. Some specific points below:

1. Table 1 and Table 2, the authors compared the effects of chitosan on the cotton dyeing process, why did chitosan-treated cotton absorb polyphenols more slowly than cotton, and absorb hydrolyzed tannins faster than cotton? In addition, why is the value of polyphenol migration to two cotton fibers similar during dyeing, while the value of tannin migration to two cotton fibers is almost twice as different? What is the principle of this? It is hoped that the authors will be able to further explain the role chitosan plays in the dyeing process.

2.  I'm a little confused about the data in Table 3. The authors claimed that wastewater from cotton shows that 92% of tannins remain in the liquor, meaning that about 8% has moved toward the fibre. However, wastewater from cotton with chitosan has a condensed tannins content of 54.6%, why did the authors conclude that "can be translated into 55.5 % of tannins in cotton"? At the same time, the authors were asked to further explain why the content of condensed tannins in wastewater differed so much.

3. P6, line 259, pay attention to sentence breaks and initial case.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

We acknowledge the time devoted to revise our manuscript. 

Find attached a document with detailed answers to every point you remarked. 

Yours sincerely

M. Bonet

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper titled “Enhancing polyphenols and tannins concentration on cotton dyed with red tea” describes a new role of chitosan as mordant to dye the cotton with natural tea at low temperature. The work seems to be of interest and paves the way to a more sustainable solution towards dyeing. However, the language of the manuscript needs to be improved significantly to align with at least the basic requirement for a scientific paper. Secondly, I am surprised by the lack of figures (only 2 of them, and figure 2 containing only a chart). I think a more systematic data evidenced by more figures, accompanied by elaborate discussion may improve the quality of this manuscript.

Many grammatical errors such as line 15 “so a solution had to be found” instead of “a solution had to found”. Line 28—"Due to the eco-awareness. synthetic dyes were replaced’ instead of Due to the eco-awareness synthetic dyes were replaced. Line 86---"The aim of this paper is to establish” instead of “The aim of this paper is to stablish”

Several nonacademic expressions such as line 99— “and it was said to be Spanish Red tea”, line 119--- “The pick-up had to be established”, etc.

Therefore, I am unable to accept this manuscript at the current level. I may re-consider it after significant improvement of the manuscript based on my above observations.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

We acknowledge the time devoted to revise our manuscript. 

Find attached a document with detailed answers to every point you remarked. 

Yours sincerely

M. Bonet

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript mainly studied the adsorption of polyphenols and tannins of red tea on cotton fabric enhanced by chitosan pretreatment. The research work is very meaningful, but its content is too simple. It is hoped that the author can increase the research content to make it more readable and scientific. Specific suggestions are as follows.

1.     The introduction and experiment parts are full of content, but the results and discussion parts are too simple and should be increased.

2.     As for the balance time of red tea dyeing, the author only studied for 45 minutes. Can this time be extended?

3.     Figure 1 is not marked with a ruler and should be completed. For the surface color depth, it is suggested that the author add K/S value as an auxiliary description.

4.     Dyed fabrics should be tested for fastness, such as washing fastness.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

We acknowledge the time devoted to revise our manuscript. 

Find attached a document with detailed answers to every point you remarked. 

Yours sincerely

M. Bonet

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 5 Report

This paper needs major revisions before being published.

1. Rewrite the abstract as it grammatically not correct.

2. As author's claim in material section, that polyphenol degrade above 60 C. Author's need to carry TG analysis of dye powder to confirm their claim.

3. The main aim of this manuscript was to present UPF value. However, the UPF values of modanted samples is very poor. Perform the UPF tests again.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

We acknowledge the time devoted to revise our manuscript. 

Find attached a document with detailed answers to every point you remarked. 

Yours sincerely

M. Bonet

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

I am satisfied with the revision and recommend the current version for its publication

Reviewer 4 Report

The author modified the earlier manuscript, added relevant experiments and data, and improved the quality of the manuscript. The manuscript in its current state can be published in the journal.

Reviewer 5 Report

Accept