Electric Poling Effect on Piezocatalytic BaTiO3/Polymer Composites for Coatings
, Samia Ben Ahmed 3, Imen Kebaili 4,5, Imed Boukhris 4,6, Puneet Azad 7, Mohammed Sultan Al-Buriahi 8 and Rahul Vaish 9,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript by Nada Alfryyan et al. demonstrated the effect of pooling the BaTiO3 ferroelectric material for coating purposes. The hypothesis and results thus demonstrate that the pooling has significant effect onto the materials antibacterial property and piezo-catalysis. Overall, I found this report organized and meaningful, for the reason I suggest publication in Catalysts after a minor revision.
(1) Representation of BaTiO3 should be consistent throughout the text. The “3” should be subscript everywhere when writing the chemical formula.
(2) Abstract is not very impressive. Can be improved. The main idea and results obtained should be clearly stated.
(3) BT-paint composited formation also should be included in experimental section.
(4) Polymer used for xrd in Fig 1 its should be included in Figure 1 caption i.e. paint.
(5) Line 110 add the jcpds # of the reference BT you used for matching your sample.
(6) Line 82 check the refence # representation
(7) Add new references for the statements made in lines 140-141.”In other words, local piezoelectricity may be sufficient for piezocatalytic activities.”
(8) The statement “In the case of strategy 3, where BT/polymer composites were poled, can exhibit piezoelectric behavior in bulk as there is an effective remnant polarization into it. Unlike strategy 2 where composites will have only local piezoelectricity despite the absence of macroscopic piezoelectric response.” How did the author reached this conclusion. If there is any experimental data it should be included into the manuscript or the author assumes it based on previous reports, in that case relevant references should be included.
Author Response
Reviewer 1
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The manuscript by Nada Alfryyan et al. demonstrated the effect of pooling the BaTiO3 ferroelectric material for coating purposes. The hypothesis and results thus demonstrate that the pooling has significant effect onto the materials antibacterial property and piezo-catalysis. Overall, I found this report organized and meaningful, for the reason I suggest publication in Catalysts after a minor revision.
- Representation of BaTiO3should be consistent throughout the text. The “3” should be subscript everywhere when writing the chemical formula.
Reply: - We have updated all chemical formula in the revised manuscript.
- Abstract is not very impressive. Can be improved. The main idea and results obtained should be clearly stated.
Reply: - We thank to the reviewer for this suggestion; we have modified the abstract in the
revised manuscript.
- BT-paint composited formation also should be included in experimental section.
Reply: - We have added BT paint composite % in the revised manuscript.
- Polymer used for xrd in Fig 1 its should be included in Figure 1 caption i.e. paint.
Reply: - We have updated paint to polymer paint in the revised manuscript.
- Line 110 add the jcpds # of the reference BT you used for matching your sample.
Reply: - We have added JCPDS file no in the revised manuscript.
- Line 82 check the refence # representation
Reply: - we have updated references in the revised manuscript.
- Add new references for the statements made in lines 140-141.”In other words, local piezoelectricity may be sufficient for piezocatalytic activities.”
Reply: - We have added new references in the revised manuscript.
- The statement “In the case of strategy 3, where BT/polymer composites were poled, can exhibit piezoelectric behavior in bulk as there is an effective remnant polarization into it. Unlike strategy 2 where composites will have only local piezoelectricity despite the absence of macroscopic piezoelectric response.” How did the author reached this conclusion. If there is any experimental data it should be included into the manuscript or the author assumes it based on previous reports, in that case relevant references should be included.
Reply: - We have included references in this statement in the revised manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
1. The introduction is not sufficient. The author should cite some recent work on piezoelectric catalysis of polymer composites. Also, the innovation of this work compared with previous work should be stressed.
2. What is the polymer used in this study? The authors should mention it in the Experimental section. Besides, Given that the diffraction peak is very sharp, the XRD pattern in Figure 1 (black line) cannot be attributed solely to the polymer diffraction.
3. In Equation 1, what does the C, C0, and k stand for, respectively? What does the absorbance in Figures 4a and b mean? The authors should carefully check the manuscript and supplement information similar to the above, e.g., the description of the Figure Caption.
4. There are many grammatical mistakes and typo errors in this manuscript, e.g., in the Abstract, "Perior" should be revised into "Prior". The author should carefully revise them.
Author Response
Reviewer 2
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The authors should carefully consider the following comments before final acceptance of this manuscript.
- The introduction is not sufficient. The author should cite some recent work on piezoelectric catalysis of polymer composites. Also, the innovation of this work compared with previous work should be stressed.
Reply: - We have improved introduction part and add new refence in the revised manuscript.
- What is the polymer used in this study? The authors should mention it in the Experimental section. Besides, Given that the diffraction peak is very sharp, the XRD pattern in Figure 1 (black line) cannot be attributed solely to the polymer diffraction.
Reply: - In the present study Asian white paint was used as polymer matrix. In the figure1 shows the xrd pattern of polymer (Asian white paint) on the coated on the metal substate.
- In Equation 1, what does the C, C0, and k stand for, respectively? What does the absorbance in Figures 4a and b mean? The authors should carefully check the manuscript and supplement information similar to the above, e.g., the description of the Figure Caption.
Reply: - Where “C” and “C0” denote the concentration values of the dye solution at the time “t = t min” and “t = 0 min”, respectively, during the piezocatalytic experiment. Absorbance spectra shows the dye degradation with respect to time. In the revised manuscript we have clearly describe figure cation.
- There are many grammatical mistakes and typo errors in this manuscript, e.g., in the Abstract, "Perior" should be revised into "Prior". The author should carefully revise them.
Reply: - As per the reviewer’s suggestion, we have carefully revised manuscript.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript can be accepted.
