Synthesis of Durian-like TiO2@CdS Core-Shell Structure and Study on H2 Generation Properties
, Zeheng Chen 1,2, Xin Wang 1,2,*, Zhenhong Zhong 1,2, Chunjun Chen 3 and Mengling Wu 4Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you reviewers, our response to the review report is in the PDF file, please refer to.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer’s Comments:
The manuscript “Synthesis of Durian-Like TiO2@CdS Core-Shell Structure and
Study on H2 Generation Properties” is very interesting work. In this study, Novel durian-like TiO2@CdS core-shell particles were synthesized through a solvothermal method in ethylenediamine solution. I believe this topic is of great interest to our reader, I think it needs minor revision before it is ready for publishing. So, I recommend this manuscript for publication in the Journal of Catalysts with minor revisions.
1. In this manuscript, the authors did not explain the importance of TiO2@CdS heterointerface for efficient charge transportation in the introduction part. The authors should explain the importance of heterointerface.
2. The author should provide reason about this statement “we can conclude that the reaction time played a crucial role in controlling the nucleation and the growth of the crystallites”.
3. Introduction part is not impressive and systematic. Cite the following articles in the introduction part. (i) 10.1016/j.jcat.2020.07.034 (ii) 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.09.128
4. Photocatalysis test…, There is well known phenomenon that photocatalytic materials are photocrroded under light and how you overcome this difficulty in your case”.
5. The authors should explain regarding the recent literature why “The unusual (002) diffraction peak indicates that the sample (TiO2@CdS, 16 h) is preferentially orientated along the c axis”.
6. In order check the stability of the synthesized materials, the authors should provide the SEM results after H2 production tests?
7. Comparison of the present results with other similar findings in the literature should be discussed in more detail. This is necessary in order to place this work together with other work in the field and to give more credibility to the present results.
8. The authors should provide a stability for H2 production of the synthesized materials.
9. The authors should pay more attention to the English grammar, and the abbreviation of journal names in Ref.
Author Response
Thank you reviewers, our response to the review report is in the PDF file, please refer to.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
For the revised manuscript, authors have improved the manuscript after answering most of the questions, but still some important questions are not addressed. So I do not suggest the publication of the work in the present form on this journal. The issues are listed below:
1. Indicate the peaks observed for TiO2 rutile and CdS other forms in the XRD pattern.
2. Mechanism is not clear as explained in the report that OH radicals and superoxide radicals playing major role. But, here photocatalytic H2 generation was studied, while the authors depicted mechanism for RhB degradation, so, it is irrelevant. These are two completely different processes. You claimed it to be a Z-scheme process, confirmation should be done with the help of scavenger experiments?
3. As per your response you choose synthesis method based on some previous report, you should cite that in materials and method section.
4. The loss in activity after four cycles is attributed to sulphide loss or CdS photodegradation, on the other hand, XRD of the samples before and after photocatalysis is same. How can you explain this?
5. It is not obvious, that photocatalytic activity order will be the order of PL intensity or photocurrent measurements, refer: doi.org/10.1039/D1MA00304F. Here, they explained that photocatalytic activity observed in a semiconductor photocatalyst is a complex interplay of several critical factors rather than dependent only on one factor. So, PL, EIS and photocurrent measurements provide important information about the photocatalyst and its activity.
Author Response
Thanks to the reviewers, our response is in the file below, please check.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors successfully addressed all the issues raised by the reviewers. Therefore, I am happy to recommend publishing this revised version of the article.
Author Response
Thank you reviewers, and your comments are greatly appreciated.
