Controllable Preparation of Silver Nanowires and Its Application in Flexible Stretchable Electrode
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Liao er al. proposed an interesting method to synthesized silver nanowire with controllable dimensions and uniformity. Authors reported the application of these nanostructure to development flexible electrodes. They describe the synthesis procedure, including an exhaustive analysis about the silver nanowire dependance from synthesis temperature, control agent and precursor addition rate. Authors reported flexible electrons development with electrical characterization under stretching and banding. While the general topic is interesting, some elements of the work could be improved with some revisions.
Comments:
1) Authors describe the actual state of silver nanowires synthesis by inserting several relevant references but no descriptions about state of the art of flexible electrodes are reported and analyze. For these reasons, authors may insert a brief description about this in the introduction part.
2) Authors describe the procedure to synthetizes silver nanowire analyzing the nanostructure dimensions dependance from several parameters and analyzing the synthesis product with SEM images. In Figure 5, authors compare AgNW synthetized with different amount of KBr. They should describe the inset of Figure 5 a,b c. The insets should be the image at higher magnification, if is it true is more convenient for a simple understanding change the main picture with the inset. Also, authors should insert the thickness of nanostructure in the images.
3) Authors reported in Figure 6 the SEM images of silver nanowires synthetized at different reaction temperature but some results are not clear. In Figure 6 a, b authors describe the presence of clusters and filament but is not evinced from the image. High magnificence can help. Figure 6d is to dark and unfocused, please corrected focus and contrast. Also, Authors compared image with different magnification, for this reason is better standardize the magnification of Fig. 6 a,c,eg and Figure b,d,f,h.
4) In Figure 7 Authors compared sinter nanowires synthetizes at different silver nitrate addition speed. Authors should insert the thickness of AgNW in the SEM images because the difference in dimension are few nm and in the images the diameters results the same. Figure 7d is not described in the text please insert a briefly description.
5) Figure 9e is not clear. Authors says that this image report the structure of a non woven textile covered with silver nanowire but is not evident. Why at the same magnification is it possible see nanowire on PDMS and paper but not on nonwoven? Please describe this in the text. In electrical characterization (Fig.9h) reduce the y axis range. Also, in the Figure 9h (Resistance vs Banding) at 180 ° nonwoven resistance increase a lot with respect the other values. Please describe this.
6) Author reported the development of flexible electrodes on Coarse jacquard fabric through reposition of silver nanowires. They analyze the covering using SEM technique (Fig.11 d) but no presence of nanowires is observed. Please replace the image using an higher magnification.
7) In the first part of the paper, authors describe the synthesis of silver nanowires “ The diol solution is obtained by mixing propylene glycol and ethylene glycol in a ratio of 2:1. A solution: Weigh 6.7 g PVP into the diol solution, stir magnetically until all PVP in the solution is dissolved and the solution turns pale yellow. Then add 0.075 g KBr (variable 1, 0.1 g, 0.125 g) and0.255 g AgCl, and stir magnetically for 90 min at 160 °C (variable 2, 110 °C, 130 °C, 150 °C). B solution: Put 3.4 g of ground AgNO3 powder into the diol solution and stir at room temperature until all AgNO3 is dissolved. B Solution was added dropwise to A solution with a constant flow pump at a flow rate of 5.56 mL/min (variable 3, direct pour, 10 mL/min, 7.14 mL/min), and the reaction was continued with magnetic stirring for a period to obtain the AgNWs solution.” This procedure is different respect to the synthesis of silver nanowire used for flexible electrodes development.” Prepare sodium alginate (NaAlg) solution: Weigh 1 g sodium alginate and 0.1 g calcium chloride (CaCl2) respectively, dissolve calcium chloride in 30 mL deionized water, and then add sodium alginate” Please describe in the text.
8) Authors characterized several samples through electrical measurement under banding and stretching, please insert error bars in the graphs.
9) The authors say that flexible electrodes are prepared using the immersion method. Using this method it is very difficult to control the quantity and quality of functionalization and it is very difficult to get comparable devices. Please describe in the text why you decide to adopt these methods, problems and how you plan to optimize this procedure.
Minor Revisions:
1) Typos error in Fig.3b “ whit”
2) Uniformize legend in the captions and SEM images.
3) Correct equation in Fig 9 g,h and in the text
4) Sentences 358-361 and 362-364 are repeated twice
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers,
First, we would like to express our thanks to the Reviewers for their instructive comments concerning our manuscript entitled ‘Controllable Preparation of Silver Nanowires and its Application in Flexible Stretchable Electrode’ (coatings-2015594). We have studied the comments carefully, and then carefully revised the whole manuscript. The revisions/explanation corresponding to comment are shown in the attached Word.
Sincerely yours,
Qingwei Liao
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors studied the synthesis conditions for Ag nanowires and fabricated flexible/stretchable electrodes based on the Ag nanowires. Below are my comments:
1. The ultimate stretch rate of the three fabrics (coarse jacquard fabric, rib fabric, and pore) are 29.8%, 52.5% and 42.3%, respectively. How did the authors apply 100% strain onto all of the 3 fabrics in Figure 11h?
2. The authors did not show the synthesis condition for Ag nanowires used for electrodes.
3. Stretchable electrodes are also flexible, but flexible electrodes are not necessarily stretchable. The authors might want to distinguish the two terms.
4. The authors refer to Figure 5d before referring to Figure 5a-c. What about switching the top row (a-c) of the Figure 5 with the bottom row (d-f)?
5. “the reduced ability” in line 244 on page 7 needs to be changed to “the reducing ability”
6. “unsensible”in line 353 on page 10 should be something like “not stretchable.”
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers,
First, we would like to express our thanks to the Reviewers for their instructive comments concerning our manuscript entitled ‘Controllable Preparation of Silver Nanowires and its Application in Flexible Stretchable Electrode’ (coatings-2015594). We have studied the comments carefully, and then carefully revised the whole manuscript. The revisions/explanation corresponding to comment are shown in the following (Reviewers' comments are in italic font):
Sincerely yours,
Qingwei Liao
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript presents the research work on the preparation of silver nanowires for flexible electrodes. The silver nanoparticles grow into AgNWs with uniform size and a diameter range of 40-60 nm. The authors have investigated the influence of reaction temperature on the morphology of AgNWs studied in the range of 110 °C ~160 °C and found that when the reaction temperature was 110 °C, no AgNWs were formed; When the reaction temperature was 160 °C, AgNWs with uniform size and diameter of about 60 nm were formed. Further, the influence of the dropping acceleration of AgNO3 solution on the particle size of silver nanowires was studied. The diameter of AgNWs gradually increased with the increasing of the dropping acceleration of the AgNO3 solution. PDMS, cellulose paper and nonwoven fabrics were selected as the substrate/base materials of flexible stretchable electrodes. The initial square resistance values of the three base materials were 2 Ω·sq−1, 1.7Ω·sq−1, and 8 Ω·sq−1 respectively. This is commendable work. The presentation is very good and the authors described the methods very clearly. However, I have a few queries and suggestions.
1. Revising English would make the manuscript perfect.
2. Some of the embedded text in the figures should be properly visible.
3. In sec 3.2, the authors discussed the influence of Cl- ion. More references about this would be good. What are the alternatives to Cl- ion? Why do the authors have preferred Cl- ion among all possibilities? They added KBr after adding AgCl. The Br- ion could damage the NW growth. Controlling the morphology by other techniques could be better. Then why did the authors use it?
4. The authors described the effect of dropping acceleration of the solution. The observations should be explained with reasons.
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers,
First, we would like to express our thanks to the Reviewers for their instructive comments concerning our manuscript entitled ‘Controllable Preparation of Silver Nanowires and its Application in Flexible Stretchable Electrode’ (coatings-2015594). We have studied the comments carefully, and then carefully revised the whole manuscript. The revisions/explanation corresponding to comment are shown in the attached Word.
Sincerely yours,
Qingwei Liao
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Liao et al. have adressed all comments from the previuosly manuscript reasonably well. They have entered esaustive and clear descriptions about procedures and results that they faced in the article. The article should be accepted after minor revisions.
Comments:
1) Check y axis name in Fig. 9g,h.Title subscript is not visible
2) Please change the color of bar scale in SEM images reported in Fig. 11
