Obtaining Polysaccharide-Based Fabrics with Improved Moisture Sorption and Dye Adsorption Properties

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

applsci-2216600-peer-review-v1

Obtaining polysaccharide-based fabrics with improved sorption properties

by Aleksandra Ivanovska

The authors report on the improvement of sorption properties of jute fibers that were treated with aqueous chitosan solution. The sorption properties were extensively studied using Reactive Orange 16 dye. It can be published but some improvements should be done from my point of view.

The authors aim at the improvement of water sorption by coating jute fibers with chitosan for “biocarpet engineering”. However, sorption studies had been conducted with an organic dye. This must be pointed out in the article title. Otherwise, it could be misleading.

P1L35: up to 1.0 %, fabric

P2L70: Specify the “sorption properties”

Section 3: The proof of chitosan absorption by FTIR spectroscopy is a bit vague. The spectra of jute and treated jute are identical. Differences must be indicated. The authors should consider another method (at least giving the nitrogen content before and after chitosan-coating).

P9L249: the IEP of J is

Figure 7: The shape of the red curve with the rhomb-shaped symbols looks strange. Please show error bars and give a (speculative) explanation.

General comment regarding the plots: What is the meaning of the different colors?

Author Response

Please see the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

1. In the abstract, in the sentence “By increasing the chitosan solution percentage up to 1.0”, the percentage is better to be presented as 100%

2. in the sentence “An inverse relationship between dye adsorption onto fabric treated with 2.0% chitosan solution, initial dye concentration, and temperature was observed due to the different dominant binding interactions”, it is not clear which two factors have an inverse relationship.

3. in the introduction section, the background for developing polysaccharide-based fabrics has been clearly illustrated. However, there are many other polymers that can also improve the sorption properties of fabrics. It is better to compare them and explain the use of polysaccharides. The novelty and necessity should be mentioned.

4. in the material section, the commercial supplier name should be mentioned.

5. in section 2.4, the operation of testing the moisture sorption should be detailed.

6. in figure 3, the FTIR data is recommended to be drawn as normal forms, where Y axis is reversed.

7. in section 3.4, fabric J 2.0% CS has a totally different trend of the effects of temperature on q compared with other fabrics. It should be future explained how the change of CS (only 0.5%) affected absorption and why ΔH° and ΔS° values are positive.

Author Response

Please see the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript reported that raw jute fabric was treated with 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0% chitosan solution to improve its sorption properties, which are essential for fabric utilization as geo-prebiotic polysaccharide support that should provide the necessary water for the growth of cyanobacterial communities in biocarpet engineering. This manuscript can meet the scope of the journal of “Applied Sciences”. However, there are still some problems in this manuscript. It needs a major revision before becomes acceptable for publication in this journal.  

1. Page 5, Authors conducted characterization of raw and chitosan treated fabrics’ surface chemistry, so what is the mechanism of jute fabrics treated with chitosan? Please give the reason.

2. Page 7, The moisture sorption of jute fabrics treated with chitosan was discussed, how to calculate the moisture sorption? Authors should give the detailed information about the calculatation of moisture sorption.

3. Page 14, Thermodynamic parameters of J2.0% CS is totally different from other jute fabrics treated with chitosan. Why is it?

4. In this manuscript, there are several mistakes. For example： (1) Page 5, “Characterization of raw and chitosan treated fabrics fabrics’ surface chemistry ” (2) Page 14, “The time needed for attaining adsorption equilibrium (270 min) is quite similar to or 451 shorter than that when phosphoric acid activated carbon from Melia azedarach waste saw-452 dust [28] and waste sunflower seed shells [31] were used as adsorbents. ”

Author Response

Please see the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Authors answered all the questions. The manuscript is now acceptable for publication in this journal.