ZnO Nanostructured Thin Films via Supersonic Plasma Jet Deposition

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors present a method for depositing ZnO nanostructured thin films using supersonic plasma jet deposition. The deposition processes were systematically optimized by controlling plasma conditions. The work is interesting and the results are sounds. However, the authors should address the following concerns to publish in this journal.

 

1. Although this manuscript focuses on the deposition of ZnO nanostructured thin films, the authors should provide key advantages of this approach compared to other deposition methods. Specifically, the reviewer cannot find significant merits of this method compared to sol-gel processing for realizing ZnO thin films.
2. The authors have to provide the electrical properties of ZnO nanostructured thin films deposited by using supersonic plasma jet.
3. The writing quality of summary and conclusion should be improved. Please revise this section with eliminating experimental methods. In addition, the typos should be revised. (for example line 347). The order of abbreviates (for example, TGA) should be also revised.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have done justice in explaining the scientific data they have collected, it would have been better to have an application part added to this. The suggestions for improvement are:

 

1. Lines 36-62 have to be moved to the material and methods or the discussion part, which will make the introduction less informative.
2. I could not see any discussion on the flow rates, can you please give a little bit of information on this.
3. Did you observe any ZnO build-up inside the plasma chamber during the operation?
4. It will be better to have examples of the proposed applications in the conclusion part.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

line 33: avoid "endurance to wet chemical etching", ZnO dissolves in acids

line 229: avoid "a way better dissociated"

line 234: explain "correction factor of the fiber" Wasn't the spectrometer spectrali calibrated included the fiber as stated in the line 115

Figure 6: recalculate the power (W) to power density (Pa/m3)

Figure 10: How the spectral correction of ATR spectra has been done?

line 289: CO2 signal may just be the residual atmospheric CO2 not  related to sample (common mistake in IR spectroscopy)

line 291: grammar mistake "modes ... generates..."

line 306: spelling mistake "for films" instead of "or films"

Table 2: "symmetry" instead of "simmetry"

lines 341-347 omit or move to Introduction

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have addressed the comments rasied by the reviewer. This manuscript is now acceptable to be published in this journal.