Carbon Deposition on Hematite (α-Fe2O3) Nanocubes by Annealing in the Air: Morphology Study with Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering (GISAXS)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper by Chang-Yong Kim reports about a morphology study on hematite nanocubes film after annealing. The investigation was carried out making use of different techniques, such as GISAXS, Raman spectroscopy and SEM microscopy.
The work is short but clearly presented and well organized; in my opinion it deserves to be accepted for publication, however I suggest after some minor revisions.
Some points are in the following:
- it would be useful to spend a few words to explain what is meant by “submonolayer”
- Fig 1: specify what is the meaning of the axes in fig.1 a and b. Also, in c and d, is there intensity in ordinate? Analogously for fig. 2.
- Line 83: Does BornAgain represent a method, an approach or a program?. Please specify better. ..
- How can be deduced from fig 1 that the average size is 38 nm? it would be useful to explain how this information is obtained, and how the simulation is set up.
- Fig 3: the photo legend is hard to read; please enlarge the font size
- The SEM images are back-scattered?
- G-peak and D-peak refer to graphite and diamond? Please specify…
- some more details on the samples would be useful: dimensions, film thickness, annealing times, preparation method for GISAX, Raman, and SEM measurements
- Some English expressions do not seem correct, e.g.
-
- Lines 12-14: A submonolayer of the nanocubes was deposited on a Si(100) substrate. While an annealing at 400 °C in vacuum does not change a GISAXS pattern from as-prepared nanocubessubmonolayer, subsequent annealing in air at the same temperature altered the GISAXS pattern
- Line 15: SEM images.
- Line 18: measured patterns from the vacuum- and the air-annealed nanocubes, respectively. The current study provides new approach for in-situ
- line 25: hematite is a strong…
- line 32: affects the catalysts performance
- line 46 also resulted in about…. compared to that…
- line 59-. Applied to GISAXS technique
- line 66: annealed in air samples.
- Line 69: submonolayer
- Line 70: comparison between…
- Line 177: cleaned
there are some oversights along the text. I recommend a general language revision
Author Response
Please see attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is aimed at investigating the carbon depositation on hematite nanocubes. The originality and novelty of the article are adequate. The introduction presents the context of the research and main achievements obtained so far, but a description of the practical applications of these materials would be advisable. The Materials and Methods section is well organized; I recommend a broader description of the Raman characterization. The Results section is clear and follows a logical order. The weak points of the article refer to the description of the conclusions, which would need to be corrected.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Recommend for publication.
