Synthesis and Characterization of Polymeric (PMMA-PVA) Hybrid Thin Films Doped with TiO₂ Nanoparticles Using Dip-Coating Technique

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors prepared a series of PVA-PMMA-TiO₂ thin films by a dip-coating method. This paper has the potential to be accepted, but some important points have to be clarified or fixed before we can proceed and positive action can be taken.

1. Why the authors chose a dip-coating method for preparing thin film? I suggest you to include this consideration in the introduction.
2. Please include the specifications/properties, and origin of all the primary materials used in this study.
3. How did the authors introduce TiO₂ to the PMMA-PVA solution and make it well dispersed?
4. Please provide detailed information about how the dip-coating technique performed.
5. I could not find the large bands that are usually observed in the range of 3000-3600 cm^-1 attributed to stretching vibrations of O-H in Figure 13.
6. In line 127, the authors stated that the film's thickness is 500 nm, confirmed by SEM. However, the provided SEM results are surface images only. The cross-section SEM images are not provided.

Author Response

Please kindly see the attached reply to reviewer-1.

Regards,

Prof. Ahmad Alsaad

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Manuscript number: crystals-1089411 Crystals MDPI (type: article)

TITLE: Synthesis and Characterization of Polymeric (PMMA-PVA) Hybrid Thin Films Doped with TiO2 Nanoparticles Using Dip-coating Technique

AUTHORS: Ahmad Alsaad, Abdul Raouf Al Dairy, Ahmad Ahmad, I. A. Qattan, Shatha Al Fawares, Qais Al-Bataineh

The first review of the manuscript

Overall description of the manuscript

In the review manuscript entitled “Synthesis and Characterization of Polymeric (PMMA-PVA) Hybrid Thin Films Doped with TiO2 Nanoparticles Using Dip-coating Technique” by A. Alsaad, A. R. A. Dairy , A. Ahmad , I. A. Qattan , S. Al Fawares , and Q. Al-Bataineh, the authors report the synthesis of hybrid thin films based on Poly(MethylMethAcrylate) (PMMA) 13 and Poly(VinylAlcohol) (PVA) doped with different concentrations of titanium dioxide 14 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs). This is quite important issue because merging metal nanoparticles with polymers boosts the optical properties and modifies the mechanical behavior of the polymer composite. Authors in detail describe the synthesis process, what is important to perform described process by the other groups. Next, they characterize and interpret various optical properties of the synthesized nanocomposite thin films by measuring and analysing UV-Vis spectrometry measurements.

The paper fits well the journal scope. The English language in the manuscript is relatively well. It can be understood even by the non-specialist in the field. The paper has 21 pages and includes 1 table (equivalent of a half of page), 41 references (2 pages), and 18 figures (8,5 pages) – effectively about 10 pages of the main text.

In my opinion the manuscript might be published after minor revisions. I believe that suggested improvements can increase the readability of the paper. My comments are mainly associated to presentation of the results and, but it is also a very important issue.

Some specific comments to the authors:

1) page 2, lines 82-86: the sentence: “Secondly, we characterize and interpret optical properties of the synthesized nanocompo site thin films including transmittance (?%), reflectance (?%), absorption coefficient (?),  optical constants [index of refractive (?), extinction coefficient(?)], and optical dielectric functions [ɛ′,ɛ′′] are investigated and interpreted by measuring and analysing UV-Vis spectrometry measurements.” should be modified into “Secondly, we characterize and interpret optical properties of the synthesized nanocompo site thin films including transmittance (?%), reflectance (?%), absorption coefficient (?),  optical constants [index of refractive (?), extinction coefficient(?)], and optical dielectric functions [ɛ′,ɛ′′], which are investigated and interpreted by measuring and analysing UV-Vis spectrometry measurements.” (a word “which” added).

2) page 3, line 112: “Millipore” should start from small letter, not a capital letter as in the current version of the manuscript.

3) Table 1 should be place on one page (in the current version it is divided into two part on different pages).

To sum up, after these issues will be resolved, I strongly believe this paper could become suitable for publication in “Crystals” MDPI journal as an article provided that the authors introduce required changes. The topic of the paper, which is strongly associated to applications of different nanomaterials is very current and can be interesting for the broad audience. Thus, I think that any work investigating and discussing these issues is highly demanded by the scientific and engineer communities.

Author Response

Please kindly see the attached reply to reviewer-2.

Regards,

Prof. Ahmad Alsaad

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf