Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Gaseous Benzene and Toluene over Novel Hybrid PIL@TiO₂/m-GO Composites

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In the submitted work, the PIL @ TiO2 composite was designed with two polymerized ionic liquid concentrations and evaluated for pollutant degradation activity for benzene and toluene under UV light. The submitted work is well prepared. Also the reuse of the catalysts was tested.Only table 1 need revision (use only mili or mikro mol). After this the work can be published.

Author Response

We appreciate the time and efforts of the referees in reviewing this manuscript and helpful suggestions.We did table 1 revision ( We used only μmol. g-1. h-1)  

Reviewer 2 Report

The work authored by Shayeste Shajari et al, entitled “Efficient photocatalytic degradation of gaseous benzene and toluene over novel hybrid PIL@TiO2/m-GO composites” can be publishable in Catalysts with some revision. In this work, the authors reported two composites of PIL@TiO2 with two polymerized ionic liquid concentrations (low and high) and employed them for pollutant degradation such as benzene and toluene. Where the low concentration ionic liquid one (PIL(low)@ TiO2) composite is superior compared to the higher concentration one. Besides, they also characterized their samples with lots of characterizations and also observed a narrower bandgap (2.1 eV) for the resulted composite.

The work is well presented and all the characterizations support each other, however, I have very few minor comments which need to be done before its publication.

1. There are some minor typo mistakes in the text, I will encourage the author to read the manuscript carefully before resubmission.
2. Authors have determined the bandgap of their composite. If possible, they may describe the photocatalytic degradation with the help of band structures such as VB, CB, and bandgap, where oxidation takes place at VB and reduction at CB. However, they did not mention this type of band alignment in the introduction, i.e., the optimum value of VB and CB. I will encourage them to add at least one Figure (from literature) in the introduction as given in the bellow references for Water Splitting process.

References for guidance

• “New Insights into Se/BiVO₄ Heterostructure for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting: A Combined Experimental and DFT Study” Journal of Physical Chemistry C,2017, 121 (11), 6218–6228.
• Structural and Electronic Properties of Oxygen Defective and Se-Doped p-Type BiVO₄(001) Thin Film for the Applications of Photocatalysis” Catal., B: Environ. 2018, (224), 895-903.
• Experimental and DFT Insights on Microflower g-C₃N₄/BiVO₄ Photocatalyst for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Generation from Lake water”. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2020, 8, 9393-9403.
• “Efficient Photoelectrochemical Performance of Gamma Irradiated g-C₃N₄ and its g-C₃N₄@ BiVO₄ Heterojunction for Solar Water Splitting” Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2019 123 (14)9013-9026.
• Polypyrrole/TiO2 composites for the application of photocatalysis” Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2017. 241: p. 1161-1169.
• “Electronic Properties of β-TaON and Its Surfaces for Solar Water Splitting” Catal., B: Environ. 2018, (229), 24-31.”
• "Enhanced photoelectrochemical performance of Z-scheme g-C₃N₄/BiVO₄ photocatalys" Appl. Catal., B: Environ., vol. 234, pp. 296-310, Oct. 2018

Author Response

1) We read the manuscript carefully and some minor typo mistakes in the text was corrected.

2) Fig 1 was added for explanation Fthe photocatalytic degradation with the help of band structures such as VB, CB, and bandgap, where oxidation at VB and reduction at CB.

 

 

Reviewer 3 Report

The article is well structured and written, however, I would like to make some comments to the authors about the XPS spectra. The chlorine spectrum is poorly deconvolved, the baseline of both peaks is wrong. Also, the spectrum of the Mn is misinterpreted, authors should correct those faults. The difference between Mn 2p 3/2 and 2p1/2 is around 11.5 eV, and the binding energy of Mn4+ is around 644 eV.

Author Response

Many thanks for your useful comment. We corrected XPS faults. 

Reviewer 4 Report

MS No:	catalysts-1016605
Title:	Efficient photocatalytic degradation of gaseous benzene and toluene over novel hybrid PIL@TiO2/m-GO composites
Authors:	Shayeste Shajari, Elaheh Kowsari, Naemeh Seifvand, Farshad Boorboor Ajdari, Amutha Chinnappan, Seeram Ramakrishna, Gopalan Saianand, Vahid Haddadi Asl, and Soheil Abdpour

 

Evaluation: The present paper deals with the synthesis of polymerized ionic liquid PIL@TiO₂ composites and evaluates their activity for benzene and toluene degradation. In order to further enhance their activity, graphene oxide (GO) was also incorporated in hybrid materials. Results showed that the PIL(low)@TiO₂@m-GO composite exhibits the highest activity in the degradation of benzene and toluene by 97% and 97%, respectively.

Overall, the paper is well written and contains useful information concerning materials synthesis and characterization. The detailed and in-depth physicochemical characterization of the synthesized materials witnesses the strong background of the research group in this field.   

In my opinion this paper can be published at Catalysts after minor revision.

• Abstract: please add a sentence at the beginning which shows the necessity of the study.
• I recommend the authors to compare the obtained results with other proposed in terms of photocatalytic degradation efficiency.
• Error bars in Figure 7 are needed.

 

Author Response

First of all, thank you for your comments and suggestions that allowed us to greatly improve the quality of the manuscript. We agree with all your comments, and we corrected point by point the manuscript accordingly.

we added a sentence at the beginning which shows the necessity of the study.
We compared the obtained results with other proposed in terms of photocatalytic degradation efficiency too.
Error bars in Figure 7 ( new versionFig 8) are added.

 

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The XPS scan continues with bugs that should be fixed before publication. First, some figures have the BE ascending and others descending. Figure 6f has serious problems of interpretation and representation. 1- The Mn-Cl peak should have more BE than the Mn-O, with the same reasoning that it has been used in N spectra. 2- If a peak of N-Mn appears in the N spectra, in the Mn spectra also, it is named in the text, but not in the figure. 3- If there are 3 Mn2p3/2 peaks, there must be 3 Mn2p1/2 peaks, and these have to keep the corresponding relationships of areas and distance between them. 4- If the authors assign a satellite to a peak, they must reference it. And the satellite does not appear in the Mn2p1/2 peaks. 5- Reference [66] is from an article where the peaks 2p1/2 and 2p3/2 have inverted, and the authors in their article have it properly assigned, which makes me think about the reading of this reference. The authors state in the text: “Another peek at 652.87 eV belongs to Mn2+ in some complexes (Figure 6f) [67–70]. However, in the figure they refer to Peak Mn2p1/2. Authors should take more care of a revision and review it properly before sending a final version, they should be careful and send a coherent text, where the figures and the text are the same.

Author Response

We appreciate the time and efforts of the editor and referee in reviewing this manuscript and helpful suggestions. the corresponding revisions are highlighted in the manuscript file. We have believed that the revised version is much improved as a result and can meet the journal publication requirements.