Photocatalytic Reversible Reactions Driven by Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Presented manuscript is rather of poor quality. The aim of the paper was not determined/described. Most of the figures is from only 2 papers - ref. [29] and [45].
In my opinion is shouldn't be [published in present form in Catalysts. All my comments I attached in pdf file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Presented manuscript is rather of poor quality. The aim of the paper was not determined/described. Most of the figures is from only 2 papers - ref. [29] and [45]. In my opinion is shouldn't be published in present form in Catalysts. All my comments I attached in pdf file.
Answer：We thank for referee’s comments and suggestions. We carefully revised our manuscript, according to referee’s suggestions. Our revised version has been edited by professional editor; see the attached certificate for the langrage editing.
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript by Z. Gong at al. presents a review of plasma catalyzed reactions, such as plasmon-driven dissociations of 4NBT to DMAB through reduction reaction. The authors also discuss the factors such as laser wavelength, reaction time, substrate, and pH; which control these reactions. The review is comprehensive and explains the reaction and degradation pathways in detail. I only have a few minor comments before the manuscript can be accepted for publication in Catalysts journal.
The authors should consider having a more detailed abstract.
Have the authors obtained requisite permissions as per MDPI policy to re-use previously published figures for their review article?
What is 4NBT in the abstract?
On line 133, what is EF?
Author Response
The manuscript by Z. Gong at al. presents a review of plasma catalyzed reactions, such as plasmon-driven dissociations of 4NBT to DMAB through reduction reaction. The authors also discuss the factors such as laser wavelength, reaction time, substrate, and pH; which control these reactions. The review is comprehensive and explains the reaction and degradation pathways in detail. I only have a few minor comments before the manuscript can be accepted for publication in Catalysts journal.
Answer: We thank for referee’s positive comments.
The authors should consider having a more detailed abstract.
Answer: we extended the abstract.
Have the authors obtained requisite permissions as per MDPI policy to re-use previously published figures for their review article?
Answer: Yes, we have.
What is 4NBT in the abstract?
Answer: The 4NBT is 4-nitrobenzenethiol, which has been added in the revise version.
On line 133, what is EF?
Answer: EF is Enhancement factor, which has been added in the revised version.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript is a review one and seems to be well organized. However, there are some deficiencies such as the following, which need to be corrected.
1. In abstract, the authors mentioned, “we briefly introduced the synthesis of 4,4′-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB) from 4-nitrobenzenethiol and p-aminothiophenol (PATP) using Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology”. However, they didn’t discuss p-aminothiophenol (PATP) in the main body of the manuscript.
2. Figures (2) and (3) were merely presented, but there is no explanation for them. The authors should give details of these if they are necessary for the present manuscript.
3. Page 3, line 78: in the sentence “Studies had shown that when the incident laser had a wavelength of 632.8 nm and the reaction time reaches 2.5 hours, 4NBT did not convert to DMAB, which was due to the Raman intensity of vs(NO2) about 4NBT was unaffected”, “the Raman intensity of vs(NO2) about 4NBT was unaffected” is unclear. It is a merely conclusive sentence without any details.
4. The full names of EF, EM, NRSS, etc. are required when they are first used:
5. Page 5, line 134: the reference (42) seems not proper.
6. Figures 7 and 8 should be explained in more detail. The authors need to describe all the peaks in the figures.
7. Most of the figures’ titles are merely copied from the cited references. The authors should make modifications to the purpose of this review paper.
8. Refs. 2 to 9 are in a different font from others.
Author Response
The manuscript is a review one and seems to be well organized. However, there are some deficiencies such as the following, which need to be corrected.
In abstract, the authors mentioned, “we briefly introduced the synthesis of 4,4′-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB) from 4-nitrobenzenethiol and p-aminothiophenol (PATP) using Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology”. However, they didn’t discuss p-aminothiophenol (PATP) in the main body of the manuscript.
Answer: we thank for referee’s comment. That sentence has been deleted in the revised version.
Figures (2) and (3) were merely presented, but there is no explanation for them. The authors should give details of these if they are necessary for the present manuscript.
Answer: Figure 3 is deleted in the revised version.
Page 3, line 78: in the sentence “Studies had shown that when the incident laser had a wavelength of 632.8 nm and the reaction time reaches 2.5 hours, 4NBT did not convert to DMAB, which was due to the Raman intensity of vs(NO2) about 4NBT was unaffected”, “the Raman intensity of vs(NO2) about 4NBT was unaffected” is unclear. It is a merely conclusive sentence without any details.
Answer: we thank for referee’s comment. We revised that sentence as “Studies had shown that when the incident laser had a wavelength of 632.8 nm and the reaction time reaches 2.5 hours, 4NBT did not convert to DMAB revealed by the Raman intensity of vs(NO2) about 4NBT.”
The full names of EF, EM, NRSS, etc. are required when they are first used:
Answer: EF is electric field, EM is electromagnetic, NRSS is normal Raman scattering spectroscopy.
Page 5, line 134: the reference (42) seems not proper.
Answer: We revised it as 45.
Figures 7 and 8 should be explained in more detail. The authors need to describe all the peaks in the figures.
Answer: With the red shift of wavelength of lasers, the Raman peaks at 1338 and 1433 cm-1 are also changed, which revealed the relationship of surface catalytic reactions with wavelength.
With the increase of radiate time, the Raman peak at 1338 cm-1 is significantly decreased, while the Raman peak at 1433 cm-1 is increased, which demonstrate surface catalytic reactions.
Most of the figures’ titles are merely copied from the cited references. The authors should make modifications to the purpose of this review paper.
Refs. 2 to 9 are in a different font from others.
Answer: We revised the sentence in the introduction, and two references are replaced by others.
“Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) technology are widely used in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and materials, and it is a highly sensitive molecular detection tool that plays a significant role in the research about the electronic structure and spectral properties of molecules and plasmon-driven chemical reactions [1-9].”
Reviewer 4 Report
I found this manuscript to be very difficult to read and understand. It does not inspire confidence that there several references to plasma, where I assume plasmon was intended. The authors suggest that they have written a review on plasmon-driven photocatalytic reduction of 4NBT to DMAB, and have tried to highlight important work in that field, but I do not find their explanations to be clear, nor appropriately cited in most cases. The language used by the authors often implies that they were personally involved in most of the work, which does not seem to be the case, though it is not always easy to determine. Many figures are shown with virtually no explanation of how to interpret the work, and little if any effort is made to provide a coherent explanation of the field. I cannot recommend further consideration of this paper.
Author Response
I found this manuscript to be very difficult to read and understand. It does not inspire confidence that there several references to plasma, where I assume plasmon was intended.
ANWER: We thank for referee’s comments and suggestions. We carefully revised our manuscript, according to referee’s suggestions. Our revised version has been edited by professional editor; see the attached certificate for the langrage editing.
The authors suggest that they have written a review on plasmon-driven photocatalytic reduction of 4NBT to DMAB, and have tried to highlight important work in that field, but I do not find their explanations to be clear, nor appropriately cited in most cases.
Answer: That is important work, which has been cited more than 140 times, by checking ISI.
The language used by the authors often implies that they were personally involved in most of the work, which does not seem to be the case, though it is not always easy to determine.
Answer: we have revised them in the revised version.
Many figures are shown with virtually no explanation of how to interpret the work, and little if any effort is made to provide a coherent explanation of the field.
ASNWER: Figure 3 was deleted in the revised manuscript.
Reviewer 5 Report
The manuscript is original as it covers topics not included in other reviews about plasma catalyzed applications such as plasmon-driven dissociations of hydrogen, nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide etc. What is missing in the text is a clear highlight of the
incorporated material basis from catalytic point of view to the plasmon dissociation. Again, a
clear emphasis on why plasmon and plasmonic materials is beneficial for specific application such as catalysis, device, sensor etc is
missing. Whether there would be room for improved interaction or better efficebcy of conversion? Is there a redox
mediating property? Also, if there is a comparison table containning similar plasmon-driven dissociations from existing reports that would make this short review more interesrting.
After these minor corrections the manuscript can be accepted.
Author Response
The manuscript is original as it covers topics not included in other reviews about plasma catalyzed applications such as plasmon-driven dissociations of hydrogen, nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide etc.
Answer: We thank for referee’s positive comments.
What is missing in the text is a clear highlight of the incorporated material basis from catalytic point of view to the plasmon dissociation.
Answer: Plasmon hot electrons provide high kenetic energy to overcome the reaction barrier for dissociation and the electrons for the photodissociation.
Again, a clear emphasis on why plasmon and plasmonic materials is beneficial for specific application such as catalysis, device, sensor etc is missing.
Answer: Plasmon hot electrons provide high kenetic energy to overcome the reaction barrier for dissociation and the electrons for the photodissociation.
Whether there would be room for improved interaction or better efficiency of conversion? Is there a redox mediating property?
ANSWER: Yes, plasmon-exciton interaction can promote efficiency and probability for the plasmon-driven chemical reaction. Detailed information can be obtained from Ref. [8, 14, 18, 19, 53-55].
Also, if there is a comparison table containing similar plasmon-driven dissociations from existing reports that would make this short review more interesting.
Answer: We thank for referee’s comments. There are few works on that, such works are not more enough to do that.
After these minor corrections the manuscript can be accepted.
Answer: We thank for referee’s positive comments.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Authors have revised manuscript carefully and full-filled all the reviewers comments and questions. Now it can be approved for publication in Catalysts.
Reviewer 3 Report
Revision is well done.
Reviewer 4 Report
While some improvements have been made to the writing, no changes of substance (explanation of figures, etc.) have been addressed. The authors comments do not respond to my concerns, and I cannot recommend publication of this in Catalysts.
