Water Splitting with Enhanced Efficiency Using a Nickel-Based Co-Catalyst at a Cupric Oxide Photocathode

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The data were presented by author in an appropriate way, but there are some issues that I would like to recommend for the same that should be considered before the publication of this manuscript.

 

Detailed comments are as follows:

The data were presented by author in an appropriate way, but there are some issues that I would like to recommend for the same that should be considered before the publication of this manuscript.

 

Detailed comments are as follows:

 

The introduction should be revised with some recent references for better understanding towards readers.

Please check the spacing error throughout the manuscript.

 

Please improve the quality of Figure 4.

 

Please mention the Miller indices to peaks in Figure 2.

Please incorporate the images of TEM and co-relate the results.

 

Author Response

We would like to thank the reviewer for the positive feedback and for the constructive comments useful to improve the quality of the manuscript. Please, enclosed you could find the answers to the comments

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In this article "water splitting with enhanced efficiency using a Nickel based co-catalyst at cupric oxide photocathode"has been discussed. The study entails the application of Ni and Ni Cu co catalyst to enhance the photo-response of tandem cell with comparison of bare metallic materials.

The study is clear and objectives and analysis are straight forward. although some in depth analysis are lacking , i would suggest to accept this manuscript with minor revisions considering the below mentioned comments :

• The major draw back of this paper is the reasoning on why and how addition of co-catalysts improved the performance. i would strongly suggest a more thorough discussion on how addition of Ni in photocathode resulted in higher performance. . To this end an Impedance Spectroscopy could shed light on kinetics and electrochemical aspects of Ni and NiCu co catalysts to improve photo electrochemical activity of co catalysts, namely charge transfer resistance, charge transport , etc...
• Illustration of the tandem cell is a bit vague. it is somewhat unclear for me the direction of illumination and its intensity for photocathode.

Author Response

We would like to thank the reviewer for the positive feedback and for the considerations. According to him, we improved the manuscript with the addition of impedance spectra and with the revision of the sketch in figure 1. Please, enclosed you could find the answers to the comments.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf