Modification of Natural Minerals with Technogenic Raw Materials
, Bekzat Abdikerim 1,* and Dinara Yessimova 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors
In my opinion your paper needs a deep revision. Sorry, but I cannot accept it in the actual format. The theme is very relevant, found cheaper and alternative ways to minimize environmental problems is an actual issue, but the paper is confused, and the work needs be better grounded.
I am not English native, but I believed that it need be reviewed and improved. Some references are not listed in the paper or are not in the right order.
The introduction is too short, it can be completed with additional information (e.g. additional information about the sorption methods described in the literature, sorption efficiency (quantitative values) of different methods, … )
I did not found results with the zeolite, only with the shungite. Any characterization is done for the sorbents, neither with the shungite without the phosphorus slag modification.
Below there are some comments that allow the authors improve the paper.
Kind regards
Title: Delete the word On in the begging of title
Affiliation: please complete with the full address, including city and country
Abstract: please review the sentence between lines 12-14, it is unclear. Avoid the use of personal pronouns in scientific texts. Delete the space between the paragraphs. Review sentences 20-21
Line 26- “Kazakhstan is the world leader in uranium mining” – indicate source/reference
Line 31-32- “formed in the process of processing of productive solutions”-please review this sentence
Line 38-39 – Can you clarify the drawbacks? (…but most of them have significant drawbacks;)
Line 41-42 – Please review the sentence: “We have proposed to use for the modification of natural minerals the waste of the phosphorus industry”
Line 48-50 – The English need be improved, in the begging of the sentence there are not a verb. Meaning of T:L ?
Line 49- replace g/dm3 by g/dm3
Line 56 – “model solution” is an unusual expression. Do you mean standard solution?
Line 76-77 – please review these chemical formulas, attention to the subscripts and superscripts, space between elements, put a space between the value and the unity (e.g. 66.85 %), for 8, 29% should be a comma or a dot?
Line 80 – what is the mineralogical method?
Line 107 – 108 – “large particles break up into smaller ones and acquire an acicular shape (Fig. 2)”: I believed that it is more evident in Fig. 2.b.
Figure 2 – in legend, what is the t°? It is the initial time? Or the t is related with the temperature? If it is about the temperature a T should be used.
Table 1 – please correct to “Ca(Fe+2,Mg)(CO3)2”
Table 2 – replace commas by dot
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you so much for your review comments and for your time! We have corrected every single comment.
Kind regards, Bekzat Abdikerim
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors presented a study of natural sorbent modified by phosphorus slag and activated in a chloride or carbonated surrounding to extract both uranium and iron from uranium-containing wastes. The topic is attractive and it can be useful to researchers in the field.
On my opinion, the manuscript under review can be published in this form, as is.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you so much for your review!
Kind regards, Bekzat Abdikerim
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This article investigates the application of a modified natural adsorbent (natural mineral) in the adsorption of heavy metals from contaminated water.
This study has practical applications since it proposes using a cheap adsorbent for heavy metal separation. I recommend publishing this paper after addressing the following comments.
Please explain sorption exchange capacity thoroughly since it is the most essential attribute of the adsorbent.
I saw some phase and functionality characterization of the material but saw no information about the porosity and thermal stability of the material. I believe these parameters, particularly pore volume and BET surface area, are the most important characteristics of the adsorbent and should be determined for this adsorbent in this study.
Please clarify better how to the slag modifier improves the performance of zeolite.
In figure 4 and 5 why separation level decreases with increasing concentration?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you so much for your review comments and for your time! We have corrected every single comment.
Kind regards, Bekzat Abdikerim
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Please define the ion exchange capacuty in the text for the readers. It is good to add mechanical stability properties of adsorbent; however, for adsorption porosity properties are much important to determine. So I strongky recommend to consider it at least for your futhre work.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you for the comments! We have added information about the mechanical stability properties of sorbents. Figures 6-8 and Table 3 describe this process in the manuscript in the section "Results."
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
