Bioinspired Mechanical Materials—Development of High-Toughness Ceramics through Complexation of Calcium Phosphate and Organic Polymers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this manuscript, efforts to develop eco-friendly mechanical materials using biomass such as cellulose and starch based on the bottom-up approach to bone-like composites are described. The topic is interesting. A major revision is necessary for reconsideration to publish. The detailed comments on this manuscript are as follows:

1. What is the novelty of this work in comparison to the previous papers?

2. Appropriate references must be cited in the result and discussion section of the manuscript e.g. "Sodium or ammonium can be used as counter cations for phosphate ions, and the choice of counter cations also affects complexation." suitable references must be added to justify the results obtained.

3. English of the manuscript should be thoroughly checked and corrected.

4. Error bars should be added in Fig. 2.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English of the manuscript should be thoroughly checked and corrected.

Author Response

Thank you for the valuable comments on our manuscript.

1. The novelty of this work is to describe the bottom-up approach to the nano composites of hydroxyapatite and polymers. Most of the previous studies focused on medical application of the composites such as bone substitutes. This paper discussed practical preparation of the composites of hydroxyapatite and polysaccharides, focusing on their mechanical properties and water resistance. One of the goal is to replace plastics by the composites consisting of eco-friendly materials. A sentence was added in lines 48-52, page 2, addressing this point.

 

2. Reference 84 was cited for the discussion of effects of counter ions on the mechanical properties of the composite of CMC and HAP.

 

3. I have revised English thoroughly and the revised sentences are marked in yellow color.

4. Error bars was added in Figure 2. For the mechanical properties of TCNF, error bars were added, but for the mechanical properties of TS and PTS, errors were not reported in the original paper.

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have done a great job investigating and writing this review paper. However, I think that some parts have to be more carefully described. And some sentences have to be revised to be easier to follow. My particular comments are given in pdf file of the manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English language should be revised, I gave some suggestions in some parts of the paper but the whole paper should be checked.

Author Response

Thank you for the valuable comments on our manuscript. I revised the manuscript according to your comments and also revised other sentences which were not clear to readers. The revised sentences are marked in yellow color in the manuscript.

 

1. Page 1, line 27, Reference 1 concerning the mechanical properties of plastics was added.
2. For the effects of water on mechanical properties of bone, there are several research groups reporting the subject. I added reference 17-21, line 64.
3. For the filler/matrix in Table 1, new sentences were added line 120-125 to clarify the roles of organic and inorganic phases based on the brick-and-mortar model.
4. References 84 and 85 were added for the annual production of cellulose and starch.

 

I have revised English thoroughly and the revised sentences are marked in yellow color.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

After revision, the manuscript can be accepted for publication.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

After revision, the manuscript can be accepted for publication.