Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article "TOF-SIMS analysis and properties of pMDI-bonded particleboards made from cup-plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) stalks" is very promising. The manuscript requires only minor corrections and additions. Comments, suggestions and recommendations have been listed below:

1. I suggest that the author add to point 3.1 a discussion on the influence of the particleboards structure on the water absorption.
2. The description of Figures 4 and 5 is identical, although it concerns the wood (Figure 4) and cup-plant-made PB (Figure 5).
3. On line 280, I suppose it should be Figure 11 instead of Figure 9.
4. Water absorption has been omitted from the discussion of Figure 11.
5. I recommend adding at least a few relevant references from the last 5 years to the manuscript.

Author Response

We are thankful for the minor comments, all points have been implemented:

better discussion on particleboard structure and water update

discussion of water update data

correction of some errors (and a few more)

Reviewer 2 Report

In “TOF-SIMS analysis and properties of pMDI-bonded particleboards made from cup-plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) stalks”, the authors prepared single-layer and three-layer cup-plant and spruce PBs and studied the adhesive penetration and mechanical properties of these PBs. The MOR and MOE and IB of cup-plant broads are quite different from the spruce ones. Is it possible to correlate these difference with the penetration of the pMDI visualized by TOF-SIMS?

   

Author Response

Cup-plant and spruce particleboard date were different, which is strongly discussed in the manuscript, and this addresses the comment given by the reviewer.