Pine-Fiber-Derived Carbon@MnO@rGO as Advanced Anodes for Improving Lithium Storage Properties

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors in the manuscript, Pine fiber-derived carbon@MnO@rGO as advanced anodes for 3 improving lithium storage properties, demonstrated the carbon and graphene nanocomposites for the metal oxide of manganese. They well addressed the concerns to be incorporated into a scientific article. However, I suggest authors should improve the manuscript in order to meet the publication standards of the journal.

1. Methodology needs revision, highlight the novelty.

2. Intercalation phenomenon accounting the current composite needs explanation.

3.Suggest to calculate the CV and GCD for the samples.

4. EIS values should be specified.

5. Crucial ref missing..include.

Journal of energy storage 31, 101652.,Electronics 9 (7), 1161

6. English spell check required.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your useful comments and kind suggestions to improve our manuscript. We have revised the manuscript accordingly, and the detailed corrections are listed below point by point (All corrections have been noted in yellow in our revised manuscript):

Response to Reviewer #1:

Reviewer #1:

In the manuscript, Pine fiber-derived carbon@MnO@rGO as advanced anodes for 3 improving lithium storage properties, demonstrated the carbon and graphene nanocomposites for the metal oxide of manganese. They well addressed the concerns to be incorporated into a scientific article. However, I suggest authors should improve the manuscript in order to meet the publication standards of the journal.

1. Methodology needs revision, highlight the novelty.

Our answer:

The methodology in the introduction of this manuscript have been rearranged and written, emphasizing the innovative nature of this work.

2. Intercalation phenomenon accounting the current composite needs explanation.

Our answer:

During the discharge process, lithium ions will move from the electrolyte and enter the interlayer of the electrode material, and a reduction reaction will occur during this process. And there will be changes in electrons, resulting in changes in current.

3. Suggest to calculate the CV and GCD for the samples.

Our answer:

Thanks for kind suggestion! The corresponding CV had been conducted in the manuscript, which is shown in Figure S5. The information in the CV curves has been dissected in the manuscript. The redox reactions corresponding to the peaks in the CV help us understand the electrochemical process. The GCD method is mostly used in the following places: electrochemical deposition of active materials and determination of metal steady-state polarization curves. And the cycle process corresponds to constant current charge and discharge, and the corresponding curve has also been analyzed.

4. EIS values should be specified.

Our answer:

As shown Figure 4d and Figure S6d, EIS was analyzed in depth. The Nyquist plots consist of a semicircle, corresponding to the charge transfer resistance (Rct)of the electrode material at high frequency, and a straight line corresponding to the Warburg impedance (Zw) of Li⁺ diffusion at low frequency. According to the equivalent circuit fitted data, the values of the Rct for FC@MnO and FC@MnO@rGO electrode are 63.97 Ω and 41.6 Ω, respectively. The Nyquist plots of FC@MnO@rGO-1 and FC@MnO@rGO-2 are displayed in Figure S6d, the values of the Rct for these two samples are 56.8 Ω and 45.6 Ω.

5. Crucial ref missing..include. Journal of energy storage 31, 101652.,Electronics 9 (7), 1161

Our answer:

Thanks for your kind comments! As suggested, the relevant citations have been added in the revised manuscript.

6. English spell check required.

Our answer:

Thanks for your kind comments! We have checked the whole manuscript and modified it carefully.

Reviewer 2 Report

XRD doesn't  show peaks corresponding to rGO. How have you reached to the conclusion of optimized composition? Compare your results with the state of the art results for advanced anodes for LIBs.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your useful comments and kind suggestions to improve our manuscript. We have revised the manuscript accordingly, and the detailed corrections are listed below point by point (All corrections have been noted in yellow in our revised manuscript):

Response to Reviewer #2:

Reviewer #2:

1. XRD doesn't show peaks corresponding to rGO. How have you reached to the conclusion of optimized composition? Compare your results with the state of the art results for advanced anodes for LIBs.

Our answer:

The XRD diffraction peak intensity of rGO is too weak, resulting in invisible peaks of graphene in XRD. The samples with different amounts of GO were prepared in this manuscript. XRD, Raman, BET and XPS were all conducted to probe the structural difference between the samples. The battery performance of the samples is related to the overall factors. After comparing the battery performance of FC@MnO@rGO, FC@MnO@rGO-1 and FC@MnO@rGO-2 (Figure S6b-c), it is clear that FC@MnO@rGO behaved the best rate and long-time cycling performance. So the optimized composition is named FC@MnO@rGO.

We list the performance with those reported in other literature in Table S2. It can be seen that FC@MnO@rGO-based battery have comparable performance.

1. Liu, Y.; Zhao, X.; Li, F.; Xia, D. Facile synthesis of MnO/C anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Electrochim. Acta 2011, 56, 6448-6452.
2. Lin, C.; Hu, L.; Cheng, C.; Sun, K.; Guo, X.; Shao, Q.; Li, J.; Wang, N.; Guo, Z. Nano-TiNb2O7/carbon nanotubes composite anode for enhanced lithium-ion storage. Electrochim. Acta 2018, 260, 65-72.
3. Li, R.; Xiao, W.; Miao, C.; Fang, R.; Wang, Z.; Zhang, M. Sphere-like SnO2/TiO2 composites as high-performance anodes for lithium ion batteries. Ceram. Int. 2019, 45, 13530-13535.
4. Huang, Z.; Luo, P.; Zheng, H.; Lyu, Z. Sulfur-doped graphene promoted Li4Ti5O12@C nanocrystals for lithium-ion batteries. J. Alloys Compd. 2022, 908, 164599.
5. Wang, D.; Zhou, C.; Cao, B.; Xu, Y.; Zhang, D.; Li, A.; Zhou, J.; Ma, Z.; Chen, X.; Song, H. One-step synthesis of spherical Si/C composites with onion-like buffer structure as high-performance anodes for lithium-ion batteries. Energy Storage Mater. 2020, 24, 312-318.
6. Wang, X.; Qiu, S.; Lu, G.; He, C.; Liu, J.; Luan, L.; Liu, W. Fabrication of porous MnO microspheres with carbon coating for lithium ion battery application. CrystEngComm 2014, 16, 1802-1809.

Reviewer 3 Report

Chemical formulas should be written using subscripts. The other misprints should be corrected.

Scale of figure 1d should be corrected.

Follow the same style of figures numbering and number the EDX maps in figure 2.

All important parameters of measurements procedure should be mentioned (for examples, power of laser for Raman spectroscopy, resolution of spectra for XPS, etc).

The phonon peaks of Raman spectra should be described in more detail.

Authors should reconsider references. Some authors are repeated. I suggest to add additional references or find substitution to existing references.

There is 4 times citing of Li, et al. 2016, 2017, 2019. But in the list of references there is only one Li et all. and only 2019.

For example, for this statement, I recommend following reference:

„Generally, the intensity ratio of D band to G band (ID/IG) represents the degree of graphitization [10.3390/nano9121756]“

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your useful comments and kind suggestions to improve our manuscript. We have revised the manuscript accordingly, and the detailed corrections are listed below point by point (All corrections have been noted in yellow in our revised manuscript):

Response to Reviewer #3:

Reviewer #3:

1. Chemical formulas should be written using subscripts. The other misprints should be corrected.

Our answer:

Thanks for your advice! The full manuscript has been carefully checked by us, and formatting issues have been corrected.

2. Scale of figure 1d should be corrected.

Our answer:

The scale of figure 1d have be corrected in the revised manuscript.

3. Follow the same style of figures numbering and number the EDX maps in figure 2.

Our answer:

The corresponding elemental mapping of Mn and O have been numbered in the same style of Figure 2 within the revised manuscript.

4. All important parameters of measurements procedure should be mentioned (for examples, power of laser for Raman spectroscopy, resolution of spectra for XPS, etc).

Our answer:

Nice advice! The parameters of measurements procedure have been supplied in the revised manuscript.

5. The phonon peaks of Raman spectra should be described in more detail.

Our answer:

The information of Raman spectra have been described in more detail. “The D band is caused by disordered structure of graphene. G band arises from the stretching of the C-C bond in graphitic materials, and is common to all sp2 carbon sys-tems.”

6. Authors should reconsider references. Some authors are repeated. I suggest to add additional references or find substitution to existing references.

Our answer:

Great suggestion! The format and content of the references have been adjusted in the revised manuscript.

7. There is 4 times citing of Li, et al. 2016, 2017, 2019. But in the list of references there is only one Li et all. and only 2019. For example, for this statement, I recommend following reference:

„Generally, the intensity ratio of D band to G band (ID/IG) represents the degree of graphitization [10.3390/nano9121756]“

Our answer:

Thanks for your kind advice! As suggested, the relevant citations have been added in the revised manuscript. And the full references have been checked in the revised manuscript.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

can be accepteed

Reviewer 3 Report

The manucript can be published. Authors improved the paper a lot.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.