Experimental Study on the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Modified Clay Using Xanthan Gum and Guar Gum Composite Materials

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Using biopolymers to stabilize soil has become a feasible solution for improving soil engineering performance. This article conducts in-depth research on the influence of the combination of xanthan gum and guar gum on the physical properties of clay, which has certain research significance. But from the whole text, I feel that there are the following issues:

At present, there were many studies on the two types of biopolymers in the literature, and studying whether the combined use of xanthan gum and guar gum can improve soil strength as a starting point cannot be included as a prominent innovation.

In the introduction section, there was too little description about the synergistic thickening of two polymers or research on other types of composite biopolymers.

The preparation and operation methods for testing in the research plan should be detailed, and the size of the sample has not been explained.

The drawing needs to be clear, the layout needs to be optimized, and there were also issues with non-standard representation methods in the text, such as writing 0:1 as 0; 1. T

here are no spaces between units and numbers, and the capitalization of letters in images was not standardized.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

No

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The author needs to clearly indicate in the abstract the results obtained in this study, such as the magnitude or percentage of improvement compared to clay, single components, etc., rather than providing a general overview.

2. The citation of references is not standardized enough, with omissions and errors.

3. There are many details and errors in the article.

4. The conclusion is written in great detail, and the mechanism of the synergistic thickening effect of xanthan gum and polysaccharides on soil improvement is also discussed in the article. This is a very important part, but it is not mentioned in the conclusion or abstract.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript shows original experimental data for assessing properties of xanthan gum and guar gum in soils stabilization.

Such kind of investigations should be useful for soil erosion and, consequently, natural and athropogenic emergencies prevention.

Authors examines the impact two biopolimers (xanthan gum and guar gum) on the physical and mechanical properties of clay. At first, these materials are eco-friendly. Moreover, in proposed method the food wastes could be utilized.

Thus, this is the actuality of this work and fully challenges the Sustanability Journal subject area.

 

Introduction briefly shows the abstract for biopolymer effect on the geotechnical properties. In experimental part authors are using original methodology, that consists of their own experimental idea and a number of standart tests. Results and discussions chapter shows and explains expermental data. All the obtained results are well-argumented, consistent and are listed in Conclusions chapter.

 

Nevertheles, reviewer have a few questions:

1. What is the reproducibility of the results - was a parallel of several experiments used? If yes, what is the average deviation in the results of the experiments? This should be reflected in the manuscript.

2. In the beginning of 3rd page authors are writing "research on utilizing", in chapter 2.1.1 "The soil samples utilized in this study", 2.1.1 - "gums...  were utilized". Do the term "utilization" is using correctly?

 

Based on the above, the manuscript should be accepted after minor revision. In reviewer' opinion, the further authors experimental investigations, especially thechnical-economical substantiation could be interesting for scholars.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Previous literature has studied the effects and synergistic effects of biopolymers. It is recommended that the author compare the synergistic effects and effects of the two biopolymers used in this article with the results in the references.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There are obvious grammar and formatting issues in the article: there are many punctuation errors in the article, such as the keyword section (the issues in the previous version were not corrected); Inconsistent format in Table 1, etc.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf