Premade Nanoparticle Films for the Synthesis of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments:
The following corrections/questions are to be resolved before it can be accepted in this journal.
- A table should be given including other currently used method from literature for clear comparison.
Please give several missing references about using drop casting and self-assembled methods, such as,
RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 107123–107135 ; DOI: 10.1039/c5ra19991c
Chemosensors 2019, 7(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors7010001
- FTIR Figures are not presented in this manuscript
Author Response
Comment 1: A table should be given including other currently used method from literature for clear comparison. Please give several missing references about using drop casting and self-assembled methods, such as, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 107123–107135; DOI: 10.1039/c5ra19991c and Chemosensors 2019, 7(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors7010001
We thank reviewer for this important suggestion. A table about methods of catalysts nanoparticle assembly for the synthesis of CNTs has been added in supplementary information (Table S1). Also, few sentences about the table content in the main text (line 344-366) has been inserted, which indicate the different methods employed in the assembly of premade catalyst particles for CNTs growth.
About the suggested references, unless there is an error on the DOI’s provided, the authors think that none of those publication are related to CNT synthesis from premade nanoparticles nor are related to the monolayers asemblies.
Comment 2: FTIR Figures are not presented in this manuscript
We appreciate reviewer’s comment and concern about FTIR result and discussion.
Authors have rechecked and expand the FTIR results discussion in page 5 (line 248-250) which are presented in the supplementary information (Figures S2 and S4). The FTIR spectra of oleic acid, aluminum oleate and aluminum oxide nanoparticles are presented in Figure S2. On the other hand, the FTIR spectra of oleic acid, iron oleate and iron oxide nanoparticles are reported in Figure S4.
Reviewer 2 Report
Present article is good written and interesting for the people working in the area of the carbon nanostructures. Alligned CNTs synthesis is not a new research area, but very important. The material presented is rather good. Few poins need to be re-considered:
- Authors named substrate - silicon waffer - SiO2 at the text - it is not correct, probably. It is still Si, covered by SiO2 layer. Authors need to prove it.
- The text in Results and discussion (e.g. at p.5) somewhere dublicate the text from experimental part.
- Figures are not well formated at pdf.
- According to the electron microscopy data CNTs density seems to be not high (e.g. like here -https://chandanashah.svbtle.com/taking-a-plunge-into-the-world-of-vertically-aligned-carbon-nanotubes). Authors need to discuss this fact and propose the solutions to increase the density.
Author Response
Comment 1: Authors named substrate - silicon waffer - SiO2 at the text - it is not correct, probably. It is still Si, covered by SiO2 layer. Authors need to prove it.
We thank reviewer for noticing this mistake in providing the correct information about substrate.
According to the product information from vendor (University Wafer), Silicon wafer has 500 nm ± 5% thermal oxide layer on top of the silicon substrate. Authors have clarified this information in experimental section (line 100-101) as well as in line 139-140. Also, labels in Figure 1 has been corrected.
Comment 2: The text in Results and discussion (e.g. at p.5) somewhere dublicate the text from experimental part.
We really want to thank reviewer for checking repetition of similar sentences in the text in paragraph 5 of results and discussion part.
Authors have removed/rephrased the sentences from paragraph 5 and 6 in results and discussion section.
Comment 3: Figures are not well formated at pdf.
Author have updated Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, and Figure 6 in the manuscript which now show improved quality of the figures.
Comment 4: According to the electron microscopy data CNTs density seems to be not high (e.g. like here -https://chandanashah.svbtle.com/taking-a-plunge-into-the-world-of-vertically-aligned-carbon-nanotubes). Authors need to discuss this fact and propose the solutions to increase the density.
Author wants to thank reviewer for his/her concern about the CNTs density which is not too high compared to the current literature. But authors have clarified this in page 7, lines 352 - 357.
Authors believe that the higher density of catalyst nanoparticles (Figure 5B) are not necessarily translated in higher density of CNTs. This seems associated with the nucleation and rate of CNT production by each nanoparticle. Higher density of CNTs can be achieved by monolayer assembly by increasing the nucleation activity of catalyst nanoparticles. Figure 6B displays CNTs that are not well aligned vertically. Considering that the substrate was fully covered by the nanoparticle monolayer assembly, the low density of CNTs can only be explained by a lower nucleation rate of the catalyst nanoparticles based on synthesis parameters. Authors propose that tuning the synthesis parameters in CVD method can increase the nucleation rate which can improve the density of the CNTs from monolayer assembly of catalyst nanoparticles. This part of work will be reported in a follow up paper.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
No comments.
Reviewer 2 Report
The article can be accepted for publication
