Effect of Applied Electrical Stimuli to Interdigitated Electrode Sensors While Detecting 17α-Ethinylestradiol in Water Samples
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The research is interesting and provides results that are of interest to researchers working in the field, so I think it can be published in Materials-MDPI. However, I have some recommendations that authors should follow before the manuscript is accepted for publication:
1) The authors do not indicate the procedure for measuring the UV-vis spectra. As reported in the manuscript, when they immerse the substrate they measure the spectrum, but they do not indicate anything about this procedure. The spectra are obtained in reflection mode? transmission? using a reflectance accessory? Please, detailed information of this process has to be included in the revised version.
2) Figure 1: The authors must include the error bars of the points represented in the three graphs.
3) What is the reason for performing UV-vis measurements at 225 nm? 17α-ethinylestradiol has a maximum at 280 nm and I believe that it is at this value that the measurements should have been made. On the other hand, the authors should consider that 225 nm is an excessively energetic value and that measurements in such low wavelength ranges can give rise to many technical measurement problems. I will be grateful if the authors explain this conveniently.
Author Response
Response to the Comments
We thank the reviewers for the comments and suggestions that we think are properly addressed in the present form of the manuscript. We think that our address to these comments, prompted by these reviews, improved its overall quality.
Reviewer 1
The research is interesting and provides results that are of interest to researchers working in the field, so I think it can be published in Materials-MDPI. However, I have some recommendations that authors should follow before the manuscript is accepted for publication:
1) The authors do not indicate the procedure for measuring the UV-vis spectra. As reported in the manuscript, when they immerse the substrate they measure the spectrum, but they do not indicate anything about this procedure. The spectra are obtained in reflection mode? transmission? using a reflectance accessory? Please, detailed information of this process has to be included in the revised version.
Answer: Thank you very much for this suggestion. The materials and methods section was improved and that information was included.
2) Figure 1: The authors must include the error bars of the points represented in the three graphs.
Answer: The error bars were included in the graphs. Thank you very much.
3) What is the reason for performing UV-vis measurements at 225 nm? 17α-ethinylestradiol has a maximum at 280 nm and I believe that it is at this value that the measurements should have been made. On the other hand, the authors should consider that 225 nm is an excessively energetic value and that measurements in such low wavelength ranges can give rise to many technical measurement problems. I will be grateful if the authors explain this conveniently.
Answer: Thank you for your advice since the EE2 can be affected by high irradiation energy. The absorbance at 225 nm was only used because the value is higher than the one at 280 nm which also correspond to a maximum. The graphs were replaced using now the absorbance at this wavelength and similar results were achieved. Please see figure 2 now.
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for submitting the interesting manuscript "Correlation between the response of interdigitated electrode sensors and the applied electrical stimuli”. However, the title does not really fit to the content of the manuscript. As stated in the introduction “By developing sensor devices, or even an array of sensors based on the electronic tongue (ET) concept [27-29], the issues regarding the detection and monitoring or emergent contaminants as PPCP and EDC….”, the manuscript described an electrochemical sensor for the detection of EE2. Further on, the introduction mentions “endocrine disruptors” as motivation for this work.
Line 139: “For the impedance related measurements, ceramic substrates with gold IDE (200 μm/200μm) deposited onto their surfaces were used as the base sensor devices.” This information is not sufficient. Please supply a schematic drawing of the sensor with ALL dimensions. Where the sensors self-fabricated or purchased? If the sensors were self-fabricated, please give details of fabrication.
Results and discussion: The manuscript is more or less descriptive. Variations of voltage and frequency are common experimental steps in the development of EACH impedimetric sensor. The given experimental results are necessary steps on the way of the development of an EE2-sensor. Further on, there is no clear separation between results and discussion sections. Figure 7 should be clearly placed into results.
It is recommended to rename the manuscript and to focus on the development of an EE2 sensor.
Author Response
Response to the Comments
We thank the reviewers for the comments and suggestions that we think are properly addressed in the present form of the manuscript. We think that our address to these comments, prompted by these reviews, improved its overall quality.
Reviewer 2
I Thank you for submitting the interesting manuscript "Correlation between the response of interdigitated electrode sensors and the applied electrical stimuli”. However, the title does not really fit to the content of the manuscript. As stated in the introduction “By developing sensor devices, or even an array of sensors based on the electronic tongue (ET) concept [27-29], the issues regarding the detection and monitoring or emergent contaminants as PPCP and EDC….”, the manuscript described an electrochemical sensor for the detection of EE2. Further on, the introduction mentions “endocrine disruptors” as motivation for this work.
Answer: Thank you very much for this suggestion which we agree completely. The title was changed.
Line 139: “For the impedance related measurements, ceramic substrates with gold IDE (200 μm/200μm) deposited onto their surfaces were used as the base sensor devices.” This information is not sufficient. Please supply a schematic drawing of the sensor with ALL dimensions. Where the sensors self-fabricated or purchased? If the sensors were self-fabricated, please give details of fabrication.
Answer: This information was included in the materials and methods section. Thank you.
Results and discussion: The manuscript is more or less descriptive. Variations of voltage and frequency are common experimental steps in the development of EACH impedimetric sensor. The given experimental results are necessary steps on the way of the development of an EE2-sensor. Further on, there is no clear separation between results and discussion sections. Figure 7 should be clearly placed into results.
Answer: Figure 7 was placed in the results section and the discussion was improved.
It is recommended to rename the manuscript and to focus on the development of an EE2 sensor.
Answer: The manuscript was renamed.
