Bimetallic Single-Atom Catalysts for Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors describe “Bimetallic single-atom catalyst for enhancing hydrogen evolution reaction”. Several major and minor errors still need to be checked before possible publication in the “Catalysts”.

1. The abstract should be rewritten more precisely without including unnecessary information. Try to highlight the novelty of the research and its contribution accurately.  
2. The authors should include the significance of photocatalytic and electrocatalytic hydrogen production in the introduction section.
3. Please clarify the innovation of this work in the introduction part.
4. The authors should add the summary table for the electrochemical hydrogen production of bimetallic single-atom catalysts supported on graphene and bimetallic single-atom catalysts supported on TMDs.
5. The authors must add a summary table for the photocatalytic hydrogen production of bimetallic single-atom catalysts supported on phosphorus doped carbon nitride and bimetallic single-atom catalysts supported on 2D polymerized carbon nitride.
6. The authors need to discuss about the newly added tables in the manuscript.
7. Rewrite the conclusion part.
8. The text is not free of grammatical, formatting, and punctuation errors. Ask a native English speaker to revise and proofread their revised manuscript before resubmission.

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Ask a native English speaker to revise and proofread their revised manuscript before resubmission.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this paper, the authors reviewed, albeit not critically, various bimetallic single-atom catalysts for enhancing hydrogen evolution reaction. The paper deserves significant revision before publishing. Below are my comments.

1/ While the title of the review states "enhancing hydrogen evolution reaction", which warrants some comparison in the hydrogen evolution reaction activity between a benchmark with bimetallic single-atom catalysts, almost no comparison is made. In that case, I suggest that the authors come up with a better fitting title.

2/ The introduction, which is the most problematic, deserves some thought and rewriting. 

- Line 31-32 states "The efficiency of the HER in the catalytic decomposition of water depends largely on the catalyst support material." This sentence is vague and largely inaccurate as catalyst support is usually inert. Please provide evidences and examples with relevant citations to support your point.

- Please define your scope of your review.

- It seems that the disadvantages of bimetallic single atom catalysts are also shared with single atom catalysts. So why should bimetallic single atom catalysts be used? What are the advantages of bimetallic single atom catalysts?

-A paragraph on HER mechanistic details should be included. Which is the problematic step? And please summarise how the bimetallic single-atom catalysts are efficient towards HER.

3/ Authors should review the stability of the catalysts. This is the most important aspect when it comes to practical industrial applications.

4/ Authors should mention about the loading of the metal atoms and compare this with the corresponding single atom catalysts. The low loading is an important aspect which greatly limits the catalytic efficiency of single atom catalysts.

5/Authors did not mention the coordination sites to anchor metal atoms in various substrates. These structures are important to understand the stability and should be mentioned.  

 

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Poor paragraphing resulting in vague topic sentence in each paragraph and convoluted logic flow. Authors should start each paragraph with the topic sentence and then expand on the topic sentence. Finally give a concluding statement which connects to the next paragraph.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I appreciate the authors took my suggestions seriously.

I think "Bimetallic Single-Atom Catalyst for Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production" is an aptly fitting title. I suggest authors to change to that.

I have no other comments.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

N.A.

Author Response

Thanks for your valuable suggestion on the title. We revised the title based on your proposal as:
“Bimetallic Single-Atom Catalyst for Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production”.