Design and Implementation of an Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer Data Acquisition System for Atmospheric Molecule Identification

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Kindly find attached my comments.

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In this paper, a data acquisition system of an orbitrap mass spectrometer, designed and implemented from a different point of view, is presented. The details of different types of spectrometers are reviewed, after which the structure of the data acquisition is detailed. Some results of a experimental implementation are presented.

 

Section 1 and 2, as well as most of the abstract, focus mainly in explaining pros and cons of various types of mass spectrometers, but nothing about mass spectrometer-data acquisition system combination. What other proposals are present in the cutting-edge literature?

 

Various sections of the manuscripts are too lengthy, especially section 1. Also, some edition is needed to add readability. For instance, text goes uninterrupted from line 62 to line 115. Many ideas are mixed up there and most readers can have difficulties in understanding the key idea.

 

Figure 5 presents the software structure. This structure can be from any acquisition system, but which are the key differences with other proposals?

 

In section 5 is not clear is the results are for the data acquisition only or are the result of the combined work of the acquisition system and the orbitrap.

 

Please improve conclusions

The writing of the manuscript is well enough. However, a light revision of all section of the manuscript is still needed.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Figure and table captions should provide clear and more detailed explanations. They are currently very brief and unclear.

The conclusion should report the final facts in the research the statement with ‘For instance’ should be eliminated.

Redo Figures 9 and 10.

In Table 1, mass has a unit or not? Then, explain.

What is this ‘The system operates with an EP2C5Q208C8N FPGA and an ADS850 96 ADC, representing advanced hardware configurations.’ Clearly explain.

FPGA was defined three times. All acronyms should be defined just ONCE.

FFT was defined in a high number of cases. Define it just once.

 

Shorten the abstract and make it more factual.

As long as the authors do my suggestions, the paper will be good.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

in this paper, the authors propose to use mass spectrometry methods for the analysis of atmospheric air. The problem of fast and accurate analysis of air composition is urgent. This work may be interesting, both from a practical and methodological point of view.

 

1) I think that the key problem is the small number of sources. 13 references cannot provide a sufficient overview of the problem and methods of solution in the introduction. It is necessary to expand and strengthen this section. Section 2 slightly expands the view, but can also be enhanced.

2) Moreover, in section 1 authors discuss the existing approaches, their advantages and disadvantages, however, they should be formulated clearly or they should be highlighted in a separate paragraph at the end of the section.

 

3) I did not find a link and description of Figure 1 in the text, then why is it given?

 

4) Figure 6, 9, 10 must be obtained. They are not readable.

 

5) I would recommend strengthening and describing in more detail the transition from data to results in lines 337-354, separately describing each picture and table. At the moment, the description seems crumpled.

 

6) I lack a methodological component describing the experiment itself, the methodology of data collection, sample preparation, placed in a separate section.

 

In general, I think that the work is new and of interest in the field of data processing automation. The presentation of the work needs to be finalized.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Congrats!