Hierarchical Co–Pi Clusters/Fe2O3 Nanorods/FTO Micropillars 3D Branched Photoanode for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The reviewed manuscript concerns the results obtained for 3D branched Fe2O3 nanorods on micropillar FTO, for which optical properties have been performed. I have the following critical remarks concerning this work:
1. For the first time, an abbreviation with the full name should be given in the text (in each of three sections: the abstract; the main text; the first figure or table), and next, only an abbreviation could be used, e.g. the abbreviations: SEM and TEM should be explained.
2. Section “Materials and Methods” should be added.
3. The chapter Results should be improved. Some details need to be added.
4. A deeper discussion of the results should be added, e.g. as a separate chapter: Discussion.
5. The Conclusions should be improved.
6. The information about costs of process should be added.
7. Editorial mistakes should be corrected, e.g.
- on p. 6 (line 199), is “300–500-nm”, but should be “300–500 nm”.
- on p. 6 (line 210), is “1.5G”, but should be “1.5 G”.
- on p. 7 (line 239), is “4.84%, 9.03%, 11.1%, and 25.7%”, but should be “4.8, 9.03, 11.1, and 25.7%”.
- on p. 8 (line 255), is “8.68%, 20.2%, 26.7%, and 41.0%”, but should be “8.68, 20.2, 26.7, and 41.0%”.
According to the mentioned above remarks, I suggest that, the minor revision is needed in this paper before publication in Nanomaterials.
Author Response
We appreciate your valuable comments and suggestions, which have resulted in modifications that have strengthened the paper. We have revised the manuscript in accordance with the reviewer’s comments and suggestions.
Thank you.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript titled with " Hierarchical Co–Pi clusters/Fe2O3 nanorods/FTO micropillars 2 3D branched photoanode for high-performance photoelectro-3 chemical water splitting" describes the synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic water splitting of Co–Pi clusters/Fe2O3 nanorods/FTO micropillars fabricated by direct printing and mist-chemical vapor deposition, and a simple hydrothermal methods. The results present in this work show that the absorption efficiency of FTO-F/Fe2O3 increased by 9.2% compared to that of FTO-M/Fe2O3 which explained by the author due to the uniform and random light scattering induced by the periodic micropillar FTO and Fe2O3 nanorods, respectively. Overall, the manuscript is well-structured and reads fluently, although some minor grammatical errors and might be resolved by an additional read-through).
1- It is not clear for me whys the relative intensity of the XRD peaks in Fig. 1g is not in consistent with the standard one.
2- Authors need to add the O1s to further confirm the chemical phase of iron oxide.
3- Authors need to add the transient photocurrent response with and without Co-Pi.
4- Nyquist plot with and without Co-Pi should be added to the manuscript.
5- I will suggest to the authors to add A plausible mechanism based on the energy edges of the Fe2O3 and Co-Pi.
Author Response
We appreciate your valuable comments and suggestions, which have resulted in modifications that have strengthened the paper. We have revised the manuscript in accordance with the reviewer’s comments and suggestions.
Thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
