Recent Advances in Carbon-Based Interfacial Photothermal Converters for Seawater Desalination: A Review
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The reviewed paper summarized the recent advances in carbon converters focused on the preparation methods of 2D/3D photothermal absorbers and the potential ways to enhance photothermal conversion efficiency. Finally, the paper proposes interfacial photothermal converters' challenges and future trends. However, such a review should end with a more comprehensive summary. Authors should indicate which materials are currently the most interesting and which seem to have a chance of being used commercially.
The current form's presentation of methods and scientific results is satisfactory for publication in C Journal of Carbon Research. Some comments apply to the entire article. Please take this into account when making corrections. The minor and significant drawbacks to be addressed can be specified as follows:
Major comments:
1. Please include in the title that this is a review article.
2. Fig. 1. Copyright? The problem of the publisher's permission to use the figures also applies to other figures.
3. Fig. 2. What does the "light absorption scale" do with the bottom panels?
4. "6. Summary and Outlook". What I miss in the summary is which material (or class of materials) seems to be the most interesting.
Minor comments:
1. Which panel in Fig. 2 refers to "Carbon-Based Material" and "Organic Polymer Material"?
2. Line 237. “[38,Error! Reference source not found."???
3. Fig. 3. Changing the panel arrangement to one column is better.
4. Fig. 4. See comments for Fig. 3. See also other figures.
5. Fig. 5. Right panel??? “(c)”???
6. Line 324. PTM?
7. Line 347, "Figure 6. a the in". "a the"????
8. Fig. 8. Reference?
9. I did not find a mention of Figure 5 in the text. Please check the rest of the figures.
10. Fig. 14, figure captions. Description of a panel (d)?
Author Response
Major comments
Comments 1: Please include in the title that this is a review article.
Response 1: Thank you for your valuable comments. We have modified the title to 'Recent Advances in Carbon-Based Interfacial Photo-thermal Converters for Seawater Desalination: A Review' to make it clear that this is a review article. (page 1, line 2)
Comments 2: Fig. 1. Copyright? The problem of the publisher's permission to use the figures also applies to other figures.
Response 2: Thank you for your reminder. We have checked the copyright status of all the figures and ensured that all the figures have been properly licensed for publication, and relevant copyright notices and licensing information have been added to the manuscript.
Comments 3: Fig. 2. What does the "light absorption scale" do with the bottom panels?
Response 3:Thank you for your correction. We realize that the correlation between the ' light absorption scale ' in Figure 2 and the bottom panels is not clear enough. Different materials exhibit photothermal effects through different mechanisms, and each mechanism has a corresponding light absorption range. We have explained the relationship between the scale and the bottom panel in detail in the figure. The ' Schematic diagram of three photothermal conversion mechanisms ' has been changed to ' Different mechanisms of the photothermal effect with the corresponding light absorption range. ' (page 4, line 151-153)
Comments 4: "6. Summary and Outlook". What I miss in the summary is which material (or class of materials) seems to be the most interesting.
Response 4: Thank you for your advice. Based on the photothermal conversion efficiency, cost-effectiveness and potential applications of materials, we point out that carbon-based materials and semiconductor materials are promising materials in current research. The changes in the ' Summary and Outlook ' section are marked with red so that you can clearly see our improvements. (page 23, line 911-918)
Minor comments:
Comments 1: Which panel in Fig. 2 refers to "Carbon-Based Material" and "Organic Polymer Material"?
Response 1: Thank you for your careful review and valuable comments. We have clearly marked the corresponding panels of ' carbon-based materials ' and ' organic polymer materials ' in Figure 2 in the article, and annotated them with red fonts in lines 184、211 to ensure clarity and understandability. (page 5, line 185、212)
Comments 2: Line 237. “[38,Error! Reference source not found."???
Response 2: Thanks for the careful review. Now we have re-corrected and updated all the reference formats in this paper. (page 6, line 254)
Comments 3: Fig. 3. Changing the panel arrangement to one column is better.
Response 3: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We change the panel arrangement of Figure 3 from the original multi-column to a one column. This arrangement makes panel more prominent . (page 7, line 284)
Comments 4: Fig. 4. See comments for Fig. 4. See also other figures.
Response 4: Thank you for your advice. According to your suggestions, we have checked and supplemented Figure 4 and related charts.(page 8, line 322-323)
Comments 5: Fig. 5. Right panel??? “(c)”???
Response 5: Thank you for your careful review. After checking, we confirm that Figure 5 actually contains only two parts, ( a ) and ( b ). (page 8, line 341)
Comments 6: Line 324. PTM?
Response 6: Thank you for pointing out the question. We have added an explanation at the corresponding position of the text, line 328, and made it clear that PTM represents ' photothermal membrane '. (page 8, line 328)
Comments 7:Line 347, "Figure 6. a the in". "a the"???
Response 7: Thank you for pointing out the mistakes in our manuscript. The wrong expression of figure6 in line 365 has been corrected and marked in red. (page 10, line 365)
Comments 8: Fig. 8. Reference?
Response 8: Thank you for your attention to the reference in our manuscript. We have added detailed literature sources to Figure 8, and compared the citations in the text and the annotations of the figtures to ensure the consistency of the citations. (page 12, line 448-451)
Comments 9: I did not find a mention of Figure 5 in the text. Please check the rest of the figures.
Response 9: Thank you for your careful review of the correspondence between the figtures and text in our manuscripts. We have explicitly mentioned Figure 5 in the text and marked its position with parentheses to ensure that readers can easily find the corresponding chart in the text. A thorough examination of all figtures is carried out to ensure that each figture has a clear correspondence and description in the text. (page 8, line 333; page 9, line339)
Comments 10: Fig. 14, figure captions. Description of a panel (d)?
Response 10: Thank you for pointing out the description problem of panel ( d ) in Figure 14. We have added panel ( d ) in Figure 14 and provided a detailed description in the notes. (page 19, line 711)
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
1. The authors many methods of for preparation and application, however I think that the main aims of the paper should be defined more precisely.
2. The authors should reveal the connection between carbon-based interfacial photothermal and seawater desalination. It is not clear which material has based performance.
3. Please add more information about carbon materials synthesis.
4. There is no much data about characterization methods. Please correct this.
5. Please correct the literature according to journal requirements.
Author Response
Major comments
Comments 1:The authors many methods of for preparation and application, however I think that the main aims of the paper should be defined more precisely.
Response 1: Thank you for your valuable comments. According to your suggestions, we redefine the main aims of the article in the introduction to ensure that the research questions and aims are clear. The aim of the article is to review and discuss the latest progress of interfacial photothermal converters for seawater desalination, and discuss in detail the conversion mechanism of photothermal materials and the preparation methods of light absorbers. We summarized the methods to improve the photothermal conversion efficiency from the material and structure of the evaporator, taking into account the cost of the material and the difficulty of the preparation process. Finally, the future development trend of photothermal converters is prospected . Each part of the article revolves around these aims. (page 2, line 76-82)
Comments 2: The authors should reveal the connection between carbon-based interfacial photothermal and seawater desalination. It is not clear which material has based performance.
Response 2: Thanks for the helpful comment. We supplemented the mechanism of carbon-based materials in seawater desalination in the ' material selection ' section, and added relevant table to visually demonstrate the performance and cost-effectiveness advantages of carbon-based materials in interfacial photothermal seawater desalination. (page6 , line 218-229, line 234-246; page 17, line 641-655,line 663 )
Comments 3: Please add more information about carbon materials synthesis
Response 3: Thank you for your suggestions. According to your suggestions, we have made the following additions and modifications in the 3.3 ' Carbon-based materials ' section of the article, the preparation methods and characteristics of low-dimensional carbon-based materials, the general composite methods of composite carbon-based materials and the mechanism of efficiency improvement. (page 6, line 218-229, line234-246)
Comments 4: There is no much data about characterization methods. Please correct this.
Response 4: Thank you for pointing out the lack of data on characterization methods in our manuscript. Based on your suggestions, we have added a table ( Table 1 ) in the ' Material Selection ' section to show how different materials are considered in terms of cost-benefit analysis and characterization methods. This helps readers to understand the multi-dimensional evaluation of material selection more intuitively. (page 17, line 641-655, line 663)
Minor comments:
Comments 1: Please correct the literature according to journal requirements.
Response 1: Thank you for your correction. We have thoroughly revised and updated all the references in this article.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have made a substantial improvement for this article. The manuscript can be accepted for publishment in the present form.
The authors have made a substantial improvement for this article. The manuscript can be accepted for publishment in the present form.
