One Stone Two Birds: Utilization of Solar Light for Simultaneous Selective Phenylcarbinol Oxidation and H₂ Production over 0D/2D-3D Pt/In₂S₃ Schottky Junction

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

kindly, see the attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Recommendation: Minor revisions needed as noted.

In this article, Huijun Zhang et al., investigated the effective utilization of Solar Light for simultaneous selective phenylcarbinol oxidation and H₂ production based on 0D/2D-3D Pt/In2S3 Schottky junction. The authors idea and concept theme (0D/2D-3D) are quite interesting and the manuscript is also well organized/written, which will likely to attract attention and impact in H₂ energy production and conversion of pollutants into value added aldehydes applications. Also, authors have elaborately explained the charge transfer mechanism using band structure by effective using the XPS and M-S plots analysis is which very interesting. No doubt this work is excellent and contain more insights for dual applications. We wish the authors to have much more good research in the near future. As such, I believe that the manuscript is suitable for the publication; in which following amendments are needed before this work can be finally accepted for publication:

 

1. Introduction is nicely written but please explain more in detailed about the novel 0d/2D-3D structure and its significance in revised manuscript.
2. Authors should explain the importance Schottky junction.
3. Importance of Pt doping and its catalytic behaviour should reflect in few more line.
4. Authors stated that enhancement of PHP with almost 100% selectivity of benzaldehyde production. Please explain the physical or chemical phenomenon briefly.
5. In generally some reports have been reported that the addition of foreign agents/dopants to the base material their bandgap is decreased due the addition of impurities in the band structures. But in your studies authors reported bandgap was increased please explain more in detailed in revised manuscript which could be useful for readers.
6. If possible, authors may include PL to explain the recombination of charge carrier effect of optical properties in addition to UV-vis and EIS spectra. (This comment is completely optional, if authors have time, otherwise please exclude)
7. In XPS (Fig.4) authors have discussed the photoexcited charge carriers but have not discussed about the photoexcited holes. But in the Page NO:6, it was photoexcited holes have faster mobility and thus facilitating PHP reaction [23,48]. It is consistent with the observation of the XPS spectra (Figure 4) a little bit confuses. Please recheck and enhance it further.
8. How did the authors calculated the barrier height (0.99 eV). Please provide the information in revised manuscript.
9.  In band diagram (Fig.6e) please make sure the fermi-level position under light illumination. Due to the carrier (e-h pairs) generation the fermi level would uplift and the corresponding bad bending would take place at the Schottky junction.
10. How about the reproducibility?
11. Some of the references used in the manuscript is not up-to-date; authors should cite the following references: for Schottky junction (0.1002/pssr.202000518), Charge transfer (10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.153474 10.1021/acsami.0c16795),  EIS (doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2022.133140).

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments to the authors

In the current manuscript, the authors reported the fabrication of 0D/2D-3D Pt/In₂S₃ Schottky Junction and evaluation of their Selective Phenylcarbinol Oxidation and H₂ Production. Fabricating dual function catalysts for preparation of value added products via oxidation and production of H2 from water has received increased attention in the last decades. The manuscript language is complex and grammatically week, however the research work is supported with scientific references. Therefore I suggest major revision for quality enhancement, which are given bellow.

1.      The manuscript contains a large number of grammatical and typing mistakes which should be carefully read and remove and the language need sufficient improvement.

2.      Why phenylcarbinol is converted into benzaldehyde. Mention the advantages of benzaldehyde in the introduction section.

3.      Dsicuss some catalytic applications of In₂S₃ in the introduction section.

4.      Shift the preparation procedure and figure 1 to the experimental section 3 from the results and discussion.

5.      Explain the novelty of your work.

6.      The authors should properly correlate the XRD data with the results presented in the manuscript.

7.      Why the band gap of Pt/In₂S₃ is greater than In₂S₃?

8.      Compare your work with the previous work by creating a table.

9.      Explain the photocatalytic mechanism by using and citing this articles, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 104364; Water 2023, 15, 175. https://doi.org/10.3390/w15010175.

10.  Mention the scientific results obtained in the abstract and conclusion.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The article has been nicely updated and can now be accepted in its current form.

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript has been sufficiently improved and can be accepted.