129Xe: A Wide-Ranging NMR Probe for Multiscale Structures
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is a nice and comprehensive review, well constructed around the authors own expertise. T still have suggestions for few additions the authors might be willing to consider. In section 3 (HP129^Xe) intro it might be pointed out, that HP 129^Xe can polarize also other nuclei (e.g. protons) which enables characterization of organics covered surfaces and enhances MRI - there are few early papers from Pines group (Science 271 (5257) , pp.1848-1851 (1996); PRB 55 (17) , pp.11604-11610 (1997)).
The techniques to characterize porous structures and their connectivities are called pyrometry. There have been some excellent reviews of "xenon polometry" by Jokisaari and Telkki, the Oulu group, which might be mentioned (in 4.6, I guess).
In most of literature "et al." is used in cursive/italic - the authors might also want to convert to this more common tradition.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript from Boventi et al is a comprehensive review of the use of 129Xe NMR to characterize porous materials. The authors do a good job of highlighting how 129Xe NMR can be used to probe physical structures at different scales. The review initially describes the models used to analyse the spectra and highlights what parameters are most significant and how this varies with the type of materials being investigated. A brief section describes the various techniques available for the hyperpolarization of xenon. The bulk of the manuscript describes selected case studies as examples of the types of information that may be obtained.
The manuscript is well organised and well written - some minor improvements to the English may be useful.
I found myself wondering how to perform the types of experiments described. What sort of equipment is required? Can this be performed with a standard NMR? What sort of probes are used? What sort of temperature and pressure regulation is used? How are samples prepared? Perhaps a section answering these questions, or references that describe the technical matters, could be added?
Author Response
The second reviewer stated that some minor improvements to the English may be useful. In agreement with this statement, we modified several terms and some sentences, which are highlighted in the new version of the review thanks to the “Track Changes” function of Microsoft Word. Another important observation by the second reviewer regarded the addition of some technical details (I found myself wondering how to perform the types of experiments described. What sort of equipment is required? Can this be performed with a standard NMR? What sort of probes are used? What sort of temperature and pressure regulation is used? How are samples prepared? Perhaps a section answering these questions, or references that describe the technical matters, could be added?). We found ourselves in strong agreement with this statement: we believe that the use of 129Xe NMR in research labs is somewhat hindered because it is considered exotic and demanding. To show that samples are actually rather easy to prepare, and that this technique can be implemented in conventional NMR instruments, we added a small new section (Section 4) showing some technical details.
