Superabsorbent Hydrogels in the Agriculture and Reclamation of Degraded Areas

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The review lacks structure and coherence. Deeper insights related to the purpose of the review are missing

2. The review should be supplemented with more recent literature reviews. Currently, more than 65% of the sources are more than 5 years old. Also, review articles by other authors are not suitable sources of literature. In this review, more than 13% of review articles are found in cited sources

3. It is necessary to correct all cited review conclusions of other authors. For information provided e.g. In lines 57-57, 148-149 you need to find the sources of the research articles.

4. Line 255 literature source required

5. It is necessary to unify all fig. quality and uniform style.

6. Figure 14 wrong formula of diethylene glycol diacrylate

7.Line 344-349 should be paraphrased.

8. How did you draw conclusions based on the objectives? Make your conclusion clear and draw the reader's attention to future prospects. I also suggest that this section should be completely re-written to make the argument clearer and more focused. The conclusion should be shortened and more closely related to the main objectives of this review. The presented conclusions are more similar to the abstract, but not to the conclusions of the review article.

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. We agree with all your comments, and we corrected point by point the manuscript accordingly.

1. The review lacks structure and coherence.Deeper insights related to the purpose of the review are missing.

The article has been thoroughly revised. The latest scientific research has been taken into account. The text has been divided into subsections.

2. The review should be supplemented with more recent literature reviews. Currently, more than 65% of the sources are more than 5 years old.Also, review articles by other authors are not suitable sources of literature. In this review, more than 13% of review articles are found in cited sources.

The article has been supplemented with the latest publications.

3. It is necessary to correct all cited review conclusions of other authors. For information provided e.g. In lines 57-57, 148-149 you need to find the sources of the research articles.

The content of paragraphs was corrected, citations to source articles were supplemented (now: lines 54-54,182-184).

4. Line 255 literature source required.

Citation completed.

5. It is necessary to unify all fig. quality and uniform style.

Unified all figures and styles

6. Figure 14 wrong formula of diethylene glycol diacrylate

The formula has been corrected.

7.Line 344-349 should be paraphrased.

Lines 344-349 have been paraphrased (now: lines 380-383)

8. How did you draw conclusions based on the objectives?Make your conclusion clear and draw the reader's attention to future prospects. I also suggest that this section should be completely re-written to make the argument clearer and more focused. The conclusion should be shortened and more closely related to the main objectives of this review. The presented conclusions are more similar to the abstract, but not to the conclusions of the review article.

The manuscript has been revised, and the abstract, introduction and conclusion have also been changed to be consistent with the title and content of this article.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1.       The abstract should provide a clearer and more concise overview of the main findings and their implications. It could benefit from highlighting the novel contributions of the study more distinctly.

2.       The introduction and literature review sections could be expanded to include more recent studies and a broader range of sources. This would help to contextualize the research within the current state of the field.

3.       It would be beneficial to separate the results and discussion sections to clearly differentiate between the findings and their interpretation. This can help in providing a clearer narrative flow.

4.       Given the environmental focus of the journal, the paper should address potential environmental impacts of superabsorbent hydrogels, including any degradation products and their effects on soil and water ecosystems.

5.       The conclusion could be strengthened by offering more specific suggestions for future research, including potential applications of superabsorbent hydrogels in other areas of environmental science or agriculture.

 

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. We agree with all your comments, and we corrected point by point the manuscript accordingly.

1. The abstract should provide a clearer and more concise overview of the main findings and their implications. It could benefit from highlighting the novel contributions of the study more distinctly.

The manuscript has been revised, and the abstract, introduction and conclusion have also been changed to be consistent with the title and content of this article.

2. The introduction and literature review sections could be expanded to include more recent studies and a broader range of sources. This would help to contextualize the research within the current state of the field.

The introduction and literature review sections included recent publications in the field of SAP applications based on modified biopolymers.

3. It would be beneficial to separate the results and discussion sections to clearly differentiate between the findings and their interpretation. This can help in providing a clearer narrative flow.

The conclusions and interpretation of the literature review are included in the Conclusions section, which has been thoroughly revised.

4. Given the environmental focus of the journal, the paper should address potential environmental impacts of superabsorbent hydrogels, including any degradation products and their effects on soil and water ecosystems.

The literature review was expanded to include the latest publications on biopolymers and biotechnological methods of producing acrylic monomers. SAP degradation processes was included in the manuscript.

5. The conclusion could be strengthened by offering more specific suggestions for future research, including potential applications of superabsorbent hydrogels in other areas of environmental science or agriculture.

The Conclusions section has been revised.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The review titled "Superabsorbent hydrogels in the agriculture and reclamation of degraded areas" summarizes the superabsorbent materials that absorb water and their applications. While it describes SAP structures, degradation and applications, a couple of illustrations are expected to provide a more comprehensive introduction to the audience.

1. A few examples have been discussed in the water storage within SAP. Can the authors comment more on the water storage capacity, swelling performance and diffusion rate of release substance, for at least one type of SAP?

2. Can the authors evaluate costs to apply SAP in agriculture and reclamation per area? Is it practical for massive applications?

3. As it is discussed of substance release from SAP, it is also of interests to understand the possibility that the nutrients from soil migrate into the matrix.

4. In general, it is helpful to include a summary table of the formation mechanisms of the different types of SAP, and agents involved. etc. Please also consider to include the scheme of networking of SAP structure to illustrate. 

5. Edgar et al modified polysaccharides to develop biodegradable materials for use of potential SAP, which are helpful to include in section 3.4 to provide insights in the sustainable material design, such as:

"Regioselective chlorination of cellulose esters by methanesulfonyl chloride"

"Efficient synthesis of glycosaminoglycan analogs"

"Selective synthesis of curdlan ω-carboxyamides by Staudinger ylide nucleophilic ring-opening"

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. We agree with all your comments, and we corrected point by point the manuscript accordingly.

 

The review titled "Superabsorbent hydrogels in the agriculture and reclamation of degraded areas" summarizes the superabsorbent materials that absorb water and their applications. While it describes SAP structures, degradation and applications, a couple of illustrations are expected to provide a more comprehensive introduction to the audience.

The manuscript has been revised, and the abstract, introduction and conclusion have also been changed to be consistent with the title and content of this article.

1. A few examples have been discussed in the water storage within SAP. Can the authors comment more on the water storage capacity, swelling performance and diffusion rate of release substance, for at least one type of SAP?

A subsection describing the water retention mechanisms of SAP polymers has been added.

2. Can the authors evaluate costs to apply SAP in agriculture and reclamation per area? Is it practical for massive applications?

In these times of rapidly changing energy and chemical substances prices, it is difficult to estimate the cost of SAP application. SAP application depends on a number of factors such as soil type, soil pH, soil salinity and the presence of multivalent metal ions. These factors affect the individual approach to SAP dosing.

3. As it is discussed of substance release from SAP, it is also of interests to understand the possibility that the nutrients from soil migrate into the matrix.

Information on nutrient migration between soil and SAP has been expanded.

4. In general, it is helpful to include a summary table of the formation mechanisms of the different types of SAP, and agents involved. etc. Please also consider to include the scheme of networking of SAP structure to illustrate. 

The general mechanisms for obtaining various types of SAPs are shown in Figure 1. The cross-linking mechanisms are described in the text (sections 2.1 and 2.3)

5. Edgar et al modified polysaccharides to develop biodegradable materials for use of potential SAP, which are helpful to include in section 3.4 to provide insights in the sustainable material design, such as:

"Regioselective chlorination of cellulose esters by methanesulfonyl chloride"

"Efficient synthesis of glycosaminoglycan analogs"

"Selective synthesis of curdlan ω-carboxyamides by Staudinger ylide nucleophilic ring-opening"

One of article has been added.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Authors addressed all the points

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript is acceptable.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript has been revised according to the reviewer's comments. The overall clarity and quality have been improved. Therefore, I would recommend its publication in present form to the audience of sustainability.