Thermal Modification and Alkyl Ketene Dimer Effects on the Surface Protection of Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara Roxb.) Wood
, Wolfgang Gindl-Altmutter 3, Valentina Lo Giudice 1, Fausto Langerame 2, Anna Maria Salvi 2 and Luigi Todaro 1,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is very well-written and interesting. I only have some minor comments as below:
Line 39 – “raw materials on the local market” – in the local market
Line 125 –“ lasted one week” – lasted for one week
Line 238-240, please revise this sentence, or separate it to two sentences.
Line 258 – “surfacemay” – please separate it
Figure 3-8, can you change the unit in x-axis to cm-1? And figures with better resolution is needed.
Figure 4 – the samples were treated at 200°C, but why the difference is insignificant?
Line 359 – what do you mean by doublet?
Table 5 – please revise the number highlighted in yellow
Author Response
Reviewer1
The paper is very well-written and interesting. I only have some minor comments as below:
Line 39 – “raw materials on the local market” – in the local market
Line 125 –“ lasted one week” – lasted for one week
Line 258 – “surfacemay” – please separate it
Auth. All the above typing errors were changed according to the suggestions.
Line 238-240, please revise this sentence, or separate it to two sentences.
Auth. The sentence is now clarified as it follows: According to Vogler [26], when the value of the WCA exceeds 65°, the surfaces are characterized as hydrophobic Inversely, with a of WCA less than 65° the surfaces are considered hydrophilic.
Figure 3-8, can you change the unit in x-axis to cm-1? And figures with better resolution is needed.
Auth. All figures are changed accordingly. Thank you for the suggestions.
Figure 4 – the samples were treated at 200°C, but why the difference is insignificant?
Auth. The sentence was amended as it follows: “Figure 4 shows small but significant spectrum changes between C and CTH, i.e. the decrease of the peak at 1610 cm-1 after heating”.
Line 359 – what do you mean by doublet?
Auth. The sentence is now clarified: After UV irradiation, the development of the two peaks at 1335-1316 cm-1 was observed, attributed to the cellulosic crystal content.
Table 5 – please revise the number highlighted in yellow
Auth. Thank you for the suggestion. I apologize for the mistake.
Reviewer 2 Report
The topic of the research work and manuscript is really interesting and provides new information. Generally the text is well written. However there are several issues to be addressed towards its quality improvement before publication.
In the first paragraphs of introduction there are not any references in the text. In lines 56-61, please, add also the relevant study entitled "Influence of thermal treatment on mechanical strength of scots pine (pinus sylvestris l.) wood" to support these statements. In lines 72-77, instead of just refering to these studies, please provide briefly some of the most significant findings to be useful to the reader. It would be useful to provide with numbers an approximate idea of the properties of this species (for example: the biological durability, hygroscopic properties etc.). Such a brief review of the properties and performance of this species would reveal the necessity of applying a treatment to this species wood (before being exposed outdoors or of high humidity environment). In line 93, provide also the reference of the refered study. Likewise, in line 97 you talk about these researchers without providing the respective references. The reader would undoubtedly show interest on this information. In lines 101-106, you refer to these studies, without providing any information/knowledge derived from those studies. The simple reference to the previously published work does not constitute a state-of-the-art description.
You should provide in materials-methods chapter the density and equilibrium moisture content of the wood speciemens before and after the treatment. If possible you could provide also the age of the four trees felled for the purposes of this work. If possible provide also an image of the chamber used or the treatment process especially concerning the fume hood (that would be interesting and attractive to the reader). Please, describe the granulometry/dimensions of the specimens used in the ATR FTIR spectroscopy tests, as well as the XPS. The colour coordinates L*, a*, b* etc should be presented in italics. In 177-179, please provide also a reference for this description. Statistical analysis is not provided or at least not described/refered in materials-methods section. In discussion of the results, you should compare your results with the results of other studies results that dealt with the combination of thermal and chemical treatment and other studies findings concerning the Alkyl Ketene or thermal treatment separately (in case you do not find them in combination in literature). Please, provide a potential explanation why the thermally modified wood had no permanent effect on the properties of this species. Could you specify the potential industrial applications that you refer in the end of this manuscipt concerning the treated material? I believe that this manuscript deserves publication after a thorough revision implemented by the authors.
Author Response
Reviewer2
The topic of the research work and manuscript is really interesting and provides new information. Generally the text is well written. However there are several issues to be addressed towards its quality improvement before publication.
In the first paragraphs of introduction there are not any references in the text. In lines 56-61, please, add also the relevant study entitled "Influence of thermal treatment on mechanical strength of scots pine (pinus sylvestris l.) wood" to support these statements. In lines 72-77, instead of just refering to these studies, please provide briefly some of the most significant findings to be useful to the reader. It would be useful to provide with numbers an approximate idea of the properties of this species (for example: the biological durability, hygroscopic properties etc.). Such a brief review of the properties and performance of this species would reveal the necessity of applying a treatment to this species wood (before being exposed outdoors or of high humidity environment). In line 93, provide also the reference of the refered study. Likewise, in line 97 you talk about these researchers without providing the respective references. The reader would undoubtedly show interest on this information. In lines 101-106, you refer to these studies, without providing any information/knowledge derived from those studies. The simple reference to the previously published work does not constitute a state-of-the-art description.
Auth. We full appreciate the comments and suggestions. Details on the properties of cedar wood were added. As suggested by the reviewer, knowledge on previous papers were also briefly added. In addition, the following references were added in the introduction section:
- Chen, C.J.; Kuang, Y.D.; Zhu, S.Z.; Burgert, I.; Keplinger, T.; Gong, A.; Li, T.; Berglund, L.; Eichhorn, S.J.; Hu, L.B. Structure-property-function relationships of natural and engineered wood. Nat Rev Mater., 2020, 5, 642–666.
- Krišťáková, S.; Neykov, N.; Antov, P.; Sedliačiková, M.; Reh, R.; Halalisan, A. F.; Hajdúchová, I. Efficiency of wood-processing enterprises. Evaluation based on DEA and MPI: A comparison between Slovakia and Bulgaria for the period 2014–2018. Forests, 2021, 12(8), 1026.
- Scheffer, T.C.; Morrell, J.J. Natural durability of wood: A worldwide checklist of species, 1998, College of Forestry, Forest Research Laboratory, Oregon State University edition, in English.
You should provide in materials-methods chapter the density and equilibrium moisture content of the wood speciemens before and after the treatment. If possible you could provide also the age of the four trees felled for the purposes of this work. If possible provide also an image of the chamber used or the treatment process especially concerning the fume hood (that would be interesting and attractive to the reader). Please, describe the granulometry/dimensions of the specimens used in the ATR FTIR spectroscopy tests, as well as the XPS. The colour coordinates L*, a*, b* etc should be presented in italics. In 177-179, please provide also a reference for this description. Statistical analysis is not provided or at least not described/refered in materials-methods section. In discussion of the results, you should compare your results with the results of other studies results that dealt with the combination of thermal and chemical treatment and other studies findings concerning the Alkyl Ketene or thermal treatment separately (in case you do not find them in combination in literature). Please, provide a potential explanation why the thermally modified wood had no permanent effect on the properties of this species. Could you specify the potential industrial applications that you refer in the end of this manuscipt concerning the treated material? I believe that this manuscript deserves publication after a thorough revision implemented by the authors.
Auth. Thank you for your inquiry regarding the materials and procedures: we have added the age, density, and dimension of the wood samples.
We are unable to provide a picture of the experiment chamber owing to privacy concerns. Website visitors can get information about the Maspell company's processes there.
The references that were missing were added, and the color coordinate wording was modified.
Concerns with the statistical analysis were clarified, and the results of the Anova test were included to the tables.
The discussion section has been largely revised. Many additional details from earlier investigations were incorporated. Accordingly, new references were given.
Regarding a possible explanation for the observed results, we can state that the thermally treated wood, mainly color, had no lasting impact on the characteristics of this species following exposure to radiation. Several authors substantially emphasized these facts. The cause should not be addressed in general terms (chemical and physical components) and we are unable to provide a general explanation without taking the variety of wood materials, genetics, etc. into consideration. Following these studies, cedar wood's possible applications were at the end suggested.
Changes are conspicuously highlighted in a different color across the text.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
As I have checked the authors have implemented the proposed changes in the revised verion of manuscript towards the improvement of their work. Almost all the changes have been implemented and in my opinion, the manuscript is well-prepared and organized enough to be accepted for publication in this journal. I remain at your disposal for any clarification.
