Estimating the Anti-Viral Performance of Photocatalytic Materials: The Correlation between Air Purification Efficiency and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Inactivation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Photocatalytic materials have been widely used in antibacterial and antiviral applications, but the evaluation of their antiviral properties is time-consuming and labor-intensive, which limits their application. In this paper, an improved acetaldehyde decomposition test is proposed to evaluate the antiviral properties of photocatalytic materials, which can greatly reduce the evaluation time of antiviral properties of photocatalytic materials. The authors did extensive literature review and in-depth discussion, and it is a meaningful work. This manuscript can be accepted for publication after minor revisions to address the following issues:

1. In Figure 2a, it is better to mark the number of coatings represented by different curves to make the graph look more intuitive.

2. Please mark the elements corresponding to the different lines in Figure 3.

3. In Figure 3, the atomic content of O is more than twice the sum of Si and Ti, whether it is because there are other elements in the sample.

4. A linear correlation between SARS-CoV-2 virus titer and acetaldehyde decomposition rate was mentioned in the paper. However, no data showing a linear correlation between other types of viruses and bacteria and acetaldehyde decomposition rate were shown before. Therefore, is it possible that this method is only suitable for testing the anti-SARS-CoV-2 virus performance of photocatalytic materials.

5. JIS R1701-2/ISO 22197-2, JIS R1703-1/ISO 27448 and JIS R1704 /ISO 10676 are introduced in detail in Section 4. However, the modified acetaldehyde decomposition test (JIS R1757/ISO19652) is not introduced in detail. Could you please add more details about this part?

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate editing of English language required.

Author Response

Thank you for the comments. Please find attached the file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper reported the alternative procedure of estimating the anti-viral performance of photocatalytic materials byacetaldehyde decomposition test. The concept was novel yet practical. The topic of the work was significant with regard to the development of photocatalysis technology. The manuscript can be considered for publication after the following comments are addressed.

Comments:

(1) For different umber of spray coatings, was there an optimal condition for maximizing the photocatalytic performance?

(2) The long-term stability of the samples toward photocatalytic reactions should also be examined. The chemical state and crystallographic structure of the used samples should be analyzed with XPS and XRD.

(3) Recent review articles summarizing the current challenge and future prospects of photocatalysis technology should be briefly introduced and cited to enlighten the readers: Catalysts, 2019, vol.9, pp.430.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your comments. Please find attached the file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf