Flame Retardance and Char Analysis of an Eco-Friendly Polyurethane Hyperbranched Hybrid Using the Sol–Gel Method
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The originality and novelty of research activity are not well exposed and/or highlighted.
page 1, line 33 The Introduction part must be improved. Please, add more relevant references from the latest research.
page 9, line 201 Chapter "3.5 XPS Char Analysis"-has to be improved. Figures No. 5-10 are poorly commented. Please describe your results more in-depth.
page 17, line 286 Chapter "Conclusion" - What is the application of this material in the industry? The future direction of the research is missing.
Author Response
Reviewer # 1:
Q1: The originality and novelty of research activity are not well exposed and/or highlighted. page 1, line 33 The Introduction part must be improved. Please, add more relevant references from the latest research.
A1: Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have improved the Introduction part and highlight the originality and novelty of research activity. We also have added more references from the latest research.
Q2: page 9, line 201 Chapter "3.5 XPS Char Analysis"-has to be improved. Figures No. 5-10 are poorly commented. Please describe your results more in-depth.
A2: Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have added some description in the 3.5 XPS.
Q3: page 17, line 286 Chapter "Conclusion" - What is the application of this material in the industry? The future direction of the research is missing.
A3: Thanks for your kind suggestions. The organic-inorganic hybrid material prepared by the sol-gel method has good compatibility and flame resistance, and has great potential for future applications in coatings application. We have added the description in the conclusion section to show future work.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Sir,
The paper is interesting and well prepared however it can be improved in some areas as follows:
The title
The number of words in the title should be minimized.
In the abstract
- A general sentence about the main topic can be stated at the beginning of this section.
- Some grammatical error should be corrected and there are some typos in the manuscript for example:
- Kindly use full name before using abbreviation for first time such as: “HBNPSi”
- Check the grammatical error of the sentence “resulted in the material passing the UL-94 standard”
- keywords should be arranged alphabetically.
Introduction section:
Some grammatical error should be corrected and there is some typos in the manuscript for example:
- Page 1 Line 39 kindly check grammatically “When heated to over 200°C”
I recommend that at the end of the introduction section focus on the aim of the research and this sentence can be moved to the experimental part“29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to observe the condensation density. The UL-94 standard was then used to evaluate the flame retardance of the hybrid material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine the morphology of the char of hybrid material, whereas X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was adopted to determine char composition to observe the mechanism of burning.”
- Please explain the abbreviation for the reader before stating it.
In the other sections:
- Schematic diagram for the experimental part could be useful for the reader
- State the model, the company and country of origin of any instrument used in the research such as oven, magnetic stirrer etc.
- figs 2 are not in a good quality please replace it with better resolution.
- Could the author give more information about the XPS analysis?
- Do the authors think that performing TGA will be useful for more information about the obtained materials?
- I think the authors should incorporate most of figs for XPS in one or two graphs to reduce the length of the manuscript.
- How many replicate did you perform for the analysis and is the result express the average of the measurements? There is no information about the measurement error we can encounter.
- Future work should be mentioned at the end of the conclusion
References
Kindly, FORMAT the references correctly according to the author’s guide.
Regards
Author Response
Reviewer # 2:
Q1: The title
- The number of words in the title should be minimized.A1: Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have corrected the title and minimized the number of the words.
- Q2: In the abstract
- A general sentence about the main topic can be stated at the beginning of this section. Some grammatical error should be corrected and there are some typos in the manuscript for example: Kindly use full name before using abbreviation for first time such as: “HBNPSi”. Check the grammatical error of the sentence “resulted in the material passing the UL-94 standard”
- Keywords should be arranged alphabetically.
A2:
(1) Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have checked the whole abstract and corrected the grammatical error of the sentence.
(2) Thanks for your kind suggestions. The keywords have been arranged alphabetically.
Q3: Introduction section:
- Some grammatical error should be corrected and there is some typos in the manuscript for example: Page 1 Line 39 kindly check grammatically “When heated to over 200°C”
- I recommend that at the end of the introduction section focus on the aim of the research and this sentence can be moved to the experimental part“29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to observe the condensation density. The UL-94 standard was then used to evaluate the flame retardance of the hybrid material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine the morphology of the char of hybrid material, whereas X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was adopted to determine char composition to observe the mechanism of burning.”
A3:
(1) Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have corrected these typos and rechecked entire manuscript carefully.
(2) Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have removed the text to the measurements of the experimental section.
Q4: In the other sections:
- Schematic diagram for the experimental part could be useful for the reader
- State the model, the company and country of origin of any instrument used in the research such as oven, magnetic stirrer etc.
- Figs 2 are not in a good quality please replace it with better resolution.
- Could the author give more information about the XPS analysis?
- Do the authors think that performing TGA will be useful for more information about the obtained materials?
- I think the authors should incorporate most of figs for XPS in one or two graphs to reduce the length of the manuscript.
- How many replicate did you perform for the analysis and is the result express the average of the measurements? There is no information about the measurement error we can encounter.
- Future work should be mentioned at the end of the conclusion
A4:
(1) Thanks for your kind suggestions. It is very great idea. We have added schematic diagram in the experimental part. We think it will be useful for the reader.
(2) Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have added the detailed information of instruments used in the research such as oven, magnetic stirrer etc.
(3) We have checked figure 2. The white dots in the figure represent silicon and phosphorus atoms. It is good quality for this kind of figure.
(4) Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have added some description in the 3.5 XPS to report the change about the bonds and discussed the char analysis.
(5) The paper is one part of our research and focus on flame retardance and char analysis. Thermal stability is very important for the hybrid materials using TGA. We have published the topic in another journal. The detailed information is as follows:`` Preparation and characteristics of an environmentally friendly hyperbranched flame retardant polyurethane hybrid containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon, Polymers, 2019, 11(4), 720``
(6) Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have rearranged XPS figures to reduce the length of the manuscript.
(7) In UL-94 test, we used three samples in every test. We have added the description in the measurements.
(8) The organic-inorganic hybrid material prepared by the sol-gel method has good compatibility and flame resistance, and has great potential for future applications in coatings application. We have added the description in the conclusion section to show future work.
Q5: References
Kindly, FORMAT the references correctly according to the author’s guide.
A5: Thanks for your kind suggestions. We have rechecked the references and format them correctly according to author`s guide.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Authors accepted all my requirements. Many parts of the submitted manuscript are rewritten.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Sir,
thanks for providing the new version including most of the modifications.
