Electrochromic and Capacitive Properties of WO₃ Nanowires Prepared by One-Step Water Bath Method

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this paper, the authors introduced WO3 nanowires were successfully synthesized by one-step water bath method at an appropriate temperature. XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM and other characterization methods proved that the synthesized product was WO3, and the product of water bath reaction for 9 h showed the nanowires design. The idea behind this is interesting. However, I still have quite a number of concerns in this manuscript. There are times where there are not enough data to support the conclusions of the author. Please see some of the major concerns below.

1.The information for the Raman spectrum of the synthesized products is not enough. The authors should give much more information about this. For example what is the resolution of the spectrometer and the y-axis numbering is missing in figure 1(b), how we know that this is a peak and not a noise?

2. The authors should give much more information about the novelty of this paper, especially the effect of using this new WO3 nanowires design , which applications can be used this device?

3. The fabrication tolerance analysis, which can offer a good guide for the fabrication requirement, and the key parameters, need to be added in the results section.

4. More references need to be included in the introduction part to understand the applications of using super-resolve for improving Raman resulition which can be helpful in this work.

1. Improving Raman spectra of pure silicon using super-resolved method

- Journal of Optics, 2019

2. Super-resolved Raman spectra of toluene and toluene–chlorobenzene mixture, Spectroscopy Letters 48 (6), 431-435

5. Much more discussion about the results should be given in this paper, especially the author needs to provide enough physicals mechanism analysis about the results.

Author Response

Response letter to the Comments

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your kind letter and for reviewers’ constructive comments. These comments are all valuable and helpful for improving our paper. All the authors have discussed about all these comments. According to the reviewers’ comments, we have tried best to modify our manuscript to meet with the requirements. In this revised version, changes to our manuscript were all highlighted. Point-by-point responses to the reviewers are listed below this letter.

COMMENTS FROM THE EDITORIAL OFFICE

1. The information for the Raman spectrum of the synthesized products is not enough. The authors should give much more information about this. For example what is the resolution of the spectrometer and the y-axis numbering is missing in figure 1(b), how we know that this is a peak and not a noise?
   Response：We thank the reviewers for their reasonable comments on our manuscript. We have added information about the instrument and cited several relevant articles to verify our experiment the same as the previous reports and highlighted in the manuscript.
   
   
2. The authors should give much more information about the novelty of this paper, especially the effect of using this new WO₃ nanowires design , which applications can be used this device?

Response：We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. In this paper, we have added relevant contents. We have used this method for the first time to prepare tungsten oxide nanowires, and have investigated the bifunctional properties of the material, namely: electrochromic and capacitive properties. WO₃ nanowires can be applied to the fields of electrochromic glass, variable glasses, advertising.

3. The fabrication tolerance analysis, which can offer a good guide for the fabrication requirement, and the key parameters, need to be added in the results section.

Response：We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have added relevant key parameters in the instrument introduction section

4. More references need to be included in the introduction part to understand the applications of using super-resolve for improving Raman resulition which can be helpful in this work.

Improving Raman spectra of pure silicon using super-resolved method- Journal of Optics, 2019

Super-resolved Raman spectra of toluene and toluene–chlorobenzene mixture, Spectroscopy Letters 48 (6), 431-435
Response：Since we mainly introduce the photocatalytic properties of WO₃ nanowires, and Raman analysis is only a small part, we briefly quote two articles recommended by the reviewer in the introduction part.

5. Much more discussion about the results should be given in this paper, especially the author needs to provide enough physicals mechanism analysis about the results.

Response：We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. Since we focus on chemistry and have little contact with physics, we have tried our best to modify some contents. If there are any deficiencies, we hope to communicate with you more and learn from you.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article contains interesting information and is scientifically sound. Thus, it can be accepted for publication after minor revisions. See details here below.

1. In the Introduction section recent and relevant references about other synthetic strategies for the growth of W oxide nanowires are missing, namely, direct thermal oxidation (DOI: 10.1002/pssr.202000235, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18265) and chemical vapor deposition (DOI:10.1021/jp0533224, DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2014.03.040). Please cite these articles possibly with other ones to provide a more complete state of the art on the growth of this material.
2. The Experimental section completely lacks information regarding nickel foam and how the tungsten oxide nanowires are deposited on this substrate.
3. Please replace “WO₄ ²⁺” with “WO₄ ^2-“.
4. Caption of Figure 7 is missing.
5. X-axis range in Figure 8f should be reduced in the 0-25 Ω
6. (Table 2) Abbreviations not mentioned in the text should be explicit as footnotes (e.g., BC). Additionally, it should be clarified if all references in this Table and in Table 1 regards WO₃ nanowires or other nanostructures.

Author Response

Response letter to the Comments

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your kind letter and for reviewers’ constructive comments. These comments are all valuable and helpful for improving our paper. All the authors have discussed about all these comments. According to the reviewers’ comments, we have tried best to modify our manuscript to meet with the requirements. In this revised version, changes to our manuscript were all highlighted. Point-by-point responses to the reviewers are listed below this letter.

COMMENTS FROM THE EDITORIAL OFFICE

1. In the Introduction section recent and relevant references about other synthetic strategies for the growth of W oxide nanowires are missing, namely, direct thermal oxidation (DOI: 10.1002/pssr.202000235, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18265) and chemical vapor deposition (DOI:10.1021/jp0533224, DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2014.03.040). Please cite these articles possibly with other ones to provide a more complete state of the art on the growth of this material.

  Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have cited these four articles to the article and highlighted in the manuscript.

2. The Experimental section completely lacks information regarding nickel foam and how the tungsten oxide nanowires are deposited on this substrate.
   Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have added the information of nickel foam and tungsten oxide nanowires deposited on the substrate in the experimental section.
3. Please replace “WO₄ ²⁺” with “WO₄ ^2-“.
   Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have modified WO₄²⁺ with "WO₄^2-。
   
   
4. Caption of Figure 7 is missing.
   Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. The title of figure 7 we have in the right place.
   
   
5. X-axis range in Figure 8f should be reduced in the 0-25 Ω
   Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have adjusted the X-axis coordinates of Figure 8f.
   
   
6. (Table 2) Abbreviations not mentioned in the text should be explicit as footnotes (e.g., BC). Additionally, it should be clarified if all references in this Table and in Table 1 regards WO₃ nanowires or other nanostructures.
   Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. In the Table 1 and Table 2, we have completed and illustrated the nanostructures.

Reviewer 3 Report

This work addresses the synthetization of WO₃ nanowires using water bath method. Authors have used various characterization techniques to study the morphological and electrochemical properties of the prepared samples. The outcome has shown high light transmittance and specific capacitance for the prepared WO₃ nanorods. Thus, I think this research is up to date and it is consistence with the general scope of the journal. However, minor modifications should be considered by the authors before accepting the manuscript for publication in Coatings. Detailed comments are given below: 

1- In the context there are some miss spelling, lack of punctuation and academic style writing. Therefore, I suggest that the English language needs revision.

2- Figure 7 and relevant discussion is missing in the text and it should be added in the revised version of the manuscript.

3- despite the good performance of the prepared nanowire, it is also interesting to test the potential window using LSV technique which is crucial for electrochemical device performance.

Author Response

Response letter to the Comments
Dear Editor,
Thank you for your kind letter and for reviewers’ constructive comments. These
comments are all valuable and helpful for improving our paper. All the authors have discussed about all these comments. According to the reviewers’ comments, we have tried best to modify our manuscript to meet with the requirements. In this revised version, changes to our manuscript were all highlighted. Point-by-point responses to the reviewers are listed below this letter.
COMMENTS FROM THE EDITORIAL OFFICE
1- In the context there are some miss spelling, lack of punctuation and academic style writing. Therefore, I suggest that the English language needs revision.
Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have modified the article spelling mistakes, lack of punctuation and academic writing style, enhance the quality of the English language and highlighted in the manuscript.
2- Figure 7 and relevant discussion is missing in the text and it should be added in the revised version of the manuscript.
Response: We thank the reviewers for their responsible comments on our manuscript. We have adjusted the format of Figure 7, and the relevant discussion part has been placed in the appropriate position and highlighted in the manuscript.
3- despite the good performance of the prepared nanowire, it is also interesting to test the potential window using LSV technique which is crucial for electrochemical device performance.
Response: This method is simple, non-toxic, smooth film and excellent
electrochemical performance of the material. Through this method, we have also made a lot of other materials in the early stage. Thank you for your review of our paper. I hope we can communicate and learn more and make progress together