Self-Assembled Nanocomposites and Nanostructures for Environmental and Energy Applications

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have presented a well composed review on Self-Assembled Nanocomposites and Nanostructures for Environmental and Energy Applications. There are several review articles on the use of nanocomposites for photocatalysis and H-generation. However, there are not many review articles that focus on self assembled materials for these applications and thus, this review would be useful to its readers. However, I have two comments which I would like the authors to address before publication. They are as follows:

1. The images are of poor quality and they all need to be replaced with higher quality images.
2. Most of the photocatalysis articles the authors cite involve dye degradation. Dye degradation is indeed the most common way researchers showcase photocatalysis. Industrial and environmental waste is notlimited totextile dyes. There can be pharmceutical wastes, heavy metal contamination, VOC's, other toxic gases, etc. that can all be photocatalytically degraded. I would like the authors to include photocatalysis that does NOT involve dye degradation in this review as well. Here are some examples that do not contain dyes (Langmuir 37.3 (2021): 1267-1278, Science of the Total Environment 746 (2020): 141291, Materials Research Bulletin 98 (2018): 64-69, Chemical Engineering Journal 401 (2020): 126020.)

Author Response

1. The images are of poor quality and they all need to be replaced with higher quality images.

Response 1: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. The images of the review have been modified.

2. Most of the photocatalysis articles the authors cite involve dye degradation. Dye degradation is indeed the most common way researchers showcase photocatalysis. Industrial and environmental waste is notlimited totextile dyes. There can be pharmceutical wastes, heavy metal contamination, VOC's, other toxic gases, etc. that can all be photocatalytically degraded. I would like the authors to include photocatalysis that does NOT involve dye degradation in this review as well. Here are some examples that do not contain dyes (Langmuir3 (2021): 1267-1278, Science of the Total Environment746 (2020): 141291, Materials Research Bulletin 98 (2018): 64-69, Chemical Engineering Journal 401 (2020): 126020.)

Response 2: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. The recommended literatures have been cited in the modified version. (Yin, J.; Ge, B.; Jiao, T.; Qin, Z.; Yu, M.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, Q.; Peng, Q., Self-Assembled Sandwich-like MXene-Derived Composites as Highly Efficient and Sustainable Catalysts for Wastewater Treatment. Langmuir 2021, 37 (3), 1267-1278.

 

Ali, W.; Ullah, H.; Zada, A.; Muhammad, W.; Ali, S.; Shaheen, S.; Alamgir, M. K.; Ansar, M. Z.; Khan, Z. U.; Bilal, H., Synthesis of TiO2 modified self-assembled honeycomb ZnO/SnO2 nanocomposites for exceptional photocatalytic degradation of 2, 4-dichlorophenol and bisphenol A. Science of the Total Environment 2020, 746, 141291.

Liu, Y.; Xu, C.; Zhu, Z.; Lu, J.; Manohari, A. G.; Shi, Z., Self-assembled ZnO/Ag hollow spheres for effective photocatalysis and bacteriostasis. Materials Research Bulletin 2018, 98, 64-69.

Yuan, R.; Qiu, J.; Yue, C.; Shen, C.; Li, D.; Zhu, C.; Liu, F.; Li, A., Self-assembled hierarchical and bifunctional MIL-88A (Fe)@ ZnIn2S4 heterostructure as a reusable sunlight-driven photocatalyst for highly efficient water purification. Chem Eng J 2020, 401, 126020.)

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript crystals-1587394 entitled "Self-Assembled Nanocomposites and Nanostructures for Environmental and Energy Applications", by Chang et al gives review that covered perspectives for future research on the design and fabrication of self-assembled nanocomposites and nanostructures. However, there some important concerns and suggestions to authors to improve. After a major revision the manuscript can be accepted in Crystal journal.

 

Recommendation: Major revision

 

1. In introduction, improve for need of this review and recent some of reviews on nanostructures.
2. Edit citation Liu as Liu et al…
3. Improve clarity of all figures. Authors may check quality of figures after pdf built just before final submission.
4. Describe advantages of various synthesis techniques such as hydrothermal using suitable references https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.129757 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130092
5. Few self assembled growth mechanisms should be involved using recent reference.
6. The very important characterization is XRD which determines crystal structure as well as various other parameters e.g. average crystallite size, preferred growth, micro strain. As given in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoso.2018.01.007
7. Author can summarize some performance data of nanostructures for their applications in the form of tables.
8. Author should update maximum references from last 5-6 years and not too old.
9. Finally, some grammatical, typo mistakes should be resolved and scientific English should be re-checked.

Author Response

1. In introduction, improve for need of this review and recent some of reviews on nanostructures.

Response 1: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. Some reviews on nanostructures have been cited in the modified version (Maeda, K.; Domen, K., Surface Nanostructures in Photocatalysts for Visible-Light-Driven Water Splitting. In Photocatalysis, Bignozzi, C. A., Ed. 2011; Vol. 303, pp 95-119. Reddy, A. L. M.; Gowda, S. R.; Shaijumon, M. M.; Ajayan, P. M., Hybrid Nanostructures for Energy Storage Applications. Advanced Materials 2012, 24 (37), 5045-5064. Klinkova, A.; Choueiri, R. M.; Kumacheva, E., Self-assembled plasmonic nanostructures. Chem Soc Rev 2014, 43 (11), 3976-3991. Howard, R. E.; Skocpol, W. J.; Jackel, L. D., NANOSTRUCTURES. Annual Review of Materials Science 1986, 16, 441-466.).

2.Edit citation Liu as Liu et al…

Response 2: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already modified in the new version.

3.Improve clarity of all figures. Authors may check quality of figures after pdf built just before final submission.

Response 3: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. The images of the review have been modified.

4.Describe advantages of various synthesis techniques such as hydrothermal using suitable references https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.129757 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130092

Response 4: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. The recommend literature has been cited (Nakate, U. T.; Singh, V. K.; Yu, Y. T.; Park, S., WO3 nanorods structures for high-performance gas sensing application. Mater Lett 2021, 299, 130092.).

 

5.Few self assembled growth mechanisms should be involved using recent reference.

Response 5: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion.

 

6.The very important characterization is XRD which determines crystal structure as well as various other parameters e.g. average crystallite size, preferred growth, micro strain. As given in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoso.2018.01.007

Response 6: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. The recommend literature has been cited (Nakate, U. T.; Patil, P.; Choudhury, S. P.; Kale, S. N., Microwave assisted synthesis of Co3O4 and NiO nanoplates and structural, optical, magnetic characterizations. Nano-Structures & Nano-Objects 2018, 14, 66-72.)

 

7.Author can summarize some performance data of nanostructures for their applications in the form of tables.

Response 7: Although the reviewers' suggestions are very good, for this mini-review article, the cited references have basically been scattered in the manuscript and summarized. If tables are added, it may affect the overall structure of the paper.

8.Author should update maximum references from last 5-6 years and not too old.

Response 8: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. We have added some latest relevant literatures.

 

9.Finally, some grammatical, typo mistakes should be resolved and scientific English should be re-checked.

Response 9: Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. The modified have been marked in the text.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have merely added the references to the manuscript instead of describing in brief the work done in those citations. The 4 references provided in the earlier review were only examples to give the authors an idea what was being suggested. The authors have merely added those 4 references to the manuscript, which is not sufficient. The authors need to add a few more similar references and explain the work in brief describing how self assembled photocatalysts are used to degrade various pollutants (which are NOT dyes) such as heavy metals, pharmacological waste, toxic organic molecules, VOCs, etc. from waste water.

Author Response

Thanks very much for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have already accepted the suggestion. We have added a little content in the review article, mainly a few more similar references, otherwise it may affect the overall structure of the paper. 

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript crystals-1587394 entitled "Self-Assembled Nanocomposites and Nanostructures for Environmental and Energy Applications", by Chang et al gives a review that covered perspectives for future research on the design and fabrication of self-assembled nanocomposites and nanostructures. The manuscript has been well revised. The authors have clearly addressed the raised issues. Hence, I recommend that the present revised version of the manuscript may be published in Crystals, MDPI.

 Recommendation: Accept.

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

Thanks very much for the reviewer’s recommendation.