Ground Tire Rubber Recycling in Applications as Insulators in Polymeric Compounds, According to Spanish UNE Standards

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Many grammatical and English errors can be seen in the paper. It would be suggested to have a professional service to review the English of the paper. It is hard to follow the paper at this condition.

What are the new findings in this study? What does this study add to the current literature?

Line 45: huge amounts of rubber waste

Line technically incorrect sentence.

Line 62: as a burning tire as gas releases dangerous gases! What does this mean?

Line 62: what strength? Are you still talking about concrete production?

Line 70: more references are needed here specifically since the authors refer to the applications of rubber in civil engineering. The authors may want to use the following references:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.06.115

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.09.138

Line 71: present study, you mean your study? So what is ref. #18?

Titles for tables should be above them. This is a standard approach.

Figure 1 shows that you have used 0.1-0.7% GTR in your blends, which is incorrect.

Please keep consistency in presenting the data. For example, different types of fonts have been used in the graphs.

Author Response

REVIEWER 1

Point 1. Many grammatical and English errors can be seen in the paper. It would be suggested to have a professional service to review the English of the paper. It is hard to follow the paper at this condition.

Response 1: We thank the reviewer for comments. In order to improve the new manuscript version, a deep English revision has been performed, as the reviewer has requested.

Point 2. What are the new findings in this study? What does this study add to the current literature?

Response 2. The new findings in this study are the next: A complete list of mechanical and electrical test results of GTR polymeric compounds are provided in this study, and electrical property values of each analyzed application, and the suitable GTR polymeric compounds in each application. So, this study gives potential low requirements insulation applications from the analysis of dielectric and mechanical composite materials with GTR. Thus, in this research, real values obtained from Laboratory tests are compared with values of the appropriate standards in each case to determine the feasibility of the material and the mixtures adopted. Final selected applications have been defined from the study of the UNE and IEC regulations. Basically, the study has focused on applications with low electrical requirements, thus, considering this, some possible applications have been selected. This study adds a deep comparative analysis of real values from the research and different possible applications, initially selected 9 insulation applications in total, and as a conclusion of the study, 6 are suitable. Applications study is original and gives specific applications and the percent allowed of GTR in polymeric compounds, which the amount of GTR allowed (maximum 10%) and justify why the different composites can be applied for the 6 applications selected from Standard analysis. So, as a resume, exhaustive study of applications of insulation of low requirements that has realized with GTR composites contributes novelties, in the field of the recycling.

Point 3. Line 45: huge amounts of rubber waste. Line technically incorrect sentence.

Response 3. Thank you for comment. This mistake has been fixed. And a revision about the rest of the paper have been performed. Moreover, a deep revision of all the manuscript has been performed

Point 4. Line 62: as a burning tire as gas releases dangerous gases! What does this mean?

Response 4. Thanks to the reviewer, this is a mistake. The sentence is not well expressed so we have proceeded to modify the text of the sentence. “many drawbacks have been reported as a burning tire as fuel releases hazardous gases”

Point 5. Line 62: what strength? Are you still talking about concrete production?

Response 5. Sorry, that is a mistake, we were referring to energy process recovery from the burning tire as fuel, that are used frequently in concrete production that only recovers 25% of the energy used for the rubber production, according with the reference:

Van Beukering, P.J.; Janssen, M.A. Trade and recycling of used tyres in Western and Eastern Europe. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 2001, 33, 235–265.

We have changed the sentence in order to be better understood.

Point 6: Line 70: more references are needed here specifically since the authors refer to the applications of rubber in civil engineering. The authors may want to use the following references:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.06.115

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.09.138

Response 6: Completely in agreement with the reviewer. Thanks to the reviewer, these two references provided, are added in the paper and the references number are: [16] and [17].

Point 7: Line 71: present study, you mean your study? So what is ref. #18?

Response 7: Yes, we mean our study, so the reference is in wrong position, we have changed the position of the reference, to next sentence, in right position, according with the reference [18].

Point 8: Titles for tables should be above them. This is a standard approach.

Response 8: Agreed with the reviewer, titles for tables have been changed position, to above the tables.

Point 9: Figure 1 shows that you have used 0.1-0.7% GTR in your blends, which is incorrect.

Response 9: Thank you for your comment. Obviously 0.1-0.7% GTR in blends, is a mistake we have changed Figure 1 a) and Figure 1 b) changing the text, and putting the correct text: 10-70% GTR.

Point 10: Please keep consistency in presenting the data. For example, different types of fonts have been used in the graphs.

Response 10: Thank you again for your comment. In order to keep consistency in presenting data, we have reedited the graphs in paper, using just one font type in the graphs, this will keep consistency in the data presentation.

Reviewer 2 Report

Though work is not novel, but it is exhaustive and this manuscript can be published provided authors make the following changes in their manuscript.
Line 56. What is "Squander tires"? I guess authors meant 'discarded tires' here.
Line 57. Authors state "as worn tires or end of life tires in which a portion of these well used tires are". Which portion? Is it tread or sidewall or bead etc. Specify. This is a scientific journal and sweeping statements like "portion of these well used tires are" is not very scientific.
Line 62: The statement is "only recovers 25% of the strength used for the rubber production [13]." is meaningless. Rephrase.
Line 64: Authors state "recycling technique very tough [14]." and cite a paper published in 2011 which didn't even measured the 'difficulty' of recycling by various techniques. Remove this irrelevant reference.
Line 64. "Therefore, a thrilling choice is".. There is nothing THRILLING about using WRT in TPEs. It is being done since past few decades.
Line 67-71: The statement "Shredded tires... eating a big quantity of waste tires" is grammatically and structurally incorrect. Rephrase. Infact the level of English through out the manuscript is less than average.
Line 74: "Fuse of GTR into polymeric.." WRT doesn't FUSE with plastics in TPEs..
Line 85: "UNE is the only Standardization organism.." Organism or organization?

There are many more problems in the manuscript but the typos, grammatical errors, mistakes in sentence constructs makes this manuscript impossible to read. Revise and resubmit.

Author Response

REVIEWER 2

Point 1: Though work is not novel, but it is exhaustive, and this manuscript can be published provided authors make the following changes in their manuscript. 

Response 1: The exhaustive study of applications of insulation of low requirements that has realized with GTR composites contributes novelties, in the field of the recycling.

Point 2: Line 56. What is "Squander tires"? I guess authors meant 'discarded tires' here.

Response 2: Thank you for comment. According to your comment, “Squander tires” this is a wrong term, thank you for reviewer guess comment, “discarded tires” is a term more appropriate to what we want to express. This term has been incorporated to the Line 56 sentence.

Point 3: Line 57. Authors state "as worn tires or end of life tires in which a portion of these well used tires are". Which portion? Is it tread or sidewall or bead etc. Specify. This is a scientific journal and sweeping statements like "portion of these well used tires are" is not very scientific. 

Response 3: Thank you for comment. We have changed the sentence in order to improve the scientific level and introduction understanding in the manuscript.

Point 4: Line 62: The statement is "only recovers 25% of the strength used for the rubber production [13]." is meaningless. Rephrase.

Response 4: Sorry, that is a mistake, we were referring to energy process recovery from the burning tire as fuel, that only recovers 25% of the energy used for the rubber production. We have changed the sentence in order to be better understood.

Point 5: Line 64: Authors state "recycling technique very tough [14]." and cite a paper published in 2011 which didn't even measured the 'difficulty' of recycling by various techniques. Remove this irrelevant reference.

Response 5: Thank you for comment. We have changed this reference and added a suitable one in this position.

Point 6: Line 64. "Therefore, a thrilling choice is".. There is nothing THRILLING about using WRT in TPEs. It is being done since past few decades.

Response 6: Thank you for your comment. THRILLING is an inappropriate term to use in the sentence. We have changed the term: “a possible choice is to blend waste…” possible is more adequate in this context.

Point 7: Line 67-71: The statement "Shredded tires... eating a big quantity of waste tires" is grammatically and structurally incorrect. Rephrase. In fact, the level of English throughout the manuscript is less than average. 

Response 7: Thank you for comment. The sentence has been changed in order to correct structurally and grammatically. The English level of the manuscript have been improved from English language deep revision.

Point 8: Line 74: "Fuse of GTR into polymeric.." WRT doesn't FUSE with plastics in TPEs..

Response 8: Again, agreed with the reviewer, WRT or GTR doesn’t fuse with plastics, so FUSE is not suitable in the sentence, appropriate term to use in this sentence is “mix” or “blend”. We have changed this term in the sentence.

Point 9: Line 85: "UNE is the only Standardization organism.." Organism or organization?

Response 9: Thank you again, and our apologize for the inappropriate terms used in different sentences in the Introduction point of the paper. Organism is not suitable; organization or agency is suitable to descript UNE as a standardization agency.

Point 10: There are many more problems in the manuscript but the typos, grammatical errors, mistakes in sentence constructs makes this manuscript impossible to read. Revise and resubmit.

Response 10: Agreed with the reviewer. A deep English revision of all the study has been performed, in order to improve the final manuscript.

Reviewer 3 Report

1. Many type errors, for instances, reference 29“E_ect of chemically modified…..” ,

Line 160-161, p.4 “ Is discovered that….” ,

Line 164 p.4, “Is seen that the discount of deformation……” etc.

2. Please explain the abbreviations when they first appear, such as GTR etc..

3. Five test samples were used for each experiment. Authors had better show error

bar in the experimental results (Figures 1 and 2).

4. In line 166, 166 p.4 “the lower in elongation at spoil is related to the imperfect

interfacial adhesion between components.”

Give a more detailed explanation of what interfacial adhesions is and why

the compounding will change the interfacial adhesion.

5. In line 202, “The carbon atoms (conductive) are placed between the chains of

the polymer, so they indirectly decrease the chain-chain distance.”

There is no evidence to support this interpretation. The chain-chain distance is not easy to be changed by physical compounding process.

6. In line 209 “The presence of a tire out of use causes the evolution of

polarization by changing the structure and the dipole moments of polymer….”,

There is no evidence to support this interpretation.

Author Response

REVIEWER 3

Point 1: Many type errors, for instances, reference 29“E_ect of chemically modified…..” ,

Line 160-161, p.4 “ Is discovered that….” ,

Line 164 p.4, “Is seen that the discount of deformation……” etc.

Response 1: Thank you for comment. Agreed with the reviewer, these and many other type errors in the manuscript have been fixed, and a deep grammatical and structural revision of the manuscript has been performed, in order to improve the English level in the manuscript.

Point 2: Please explain the abbreviations when they first appear, such as GTR etc..

Response 2: Thank you for comment. We have added explanations of different abbreviations in the manuscript in the abstract, GTR, UNE and IEC. In this sense the title has been changed.

Point 3. Five test samples were used for each experiment. Authors had better show error bar in the experimental results (Figures 1 and 2).

Response 3. Thank to reviewer for comments. Five test samples were used in the mechanical analysis performed, not for Dynamic Electric Analysis (DEA), or also called Dielectric Test. The error in the mechanical analysis performed (Figure 1), was less than 3,5%, so with this level of error the results are completely validated. On the other hand, about error bar in Figures 1 and 2, will not provide relevant information about the trial, with this very low error level in the performed tests. About dielectric analysis (Figures 2 and 3) so few dielectric analysis research works published in research journals refers to the bar errors measurement, therefore most of dielectric characterizations research works do not apply this type error bar [1-3], in this sense we consider applying the bar error for upcoming papers in dielectric and mechanical characterization. Most common sources of errors in dielectric test measurements (DEA):

Errors resulting from the measuring system (e.g., accuracy of the signal analyzer and influence of the cables and sample cell) strongly depend on the frequency of the measurement and the actual sample capacity [3-5]. Such limitations are usually adequately described in instruction manuals supplied by the manufacturers. It is considered that the accuracy is not constant as a function of frequency. It is considered a maximum of error 5% below 0.1 Hz and above 1 kHz about 1% in the range 0.1 Hz − 1 kHz [6]. To minimize the error is needed good electrical contact between sample and electrode plates must be ensured in order to avoid error due to trapped air; an additional capacitance in series with the sample would be introduced, as in our measurements with DEA Equipment. And the expected error due thermal heating was estimated to be in the order of 0.1ºC [7], so it means that we have a percent error thermal heating less than 0,1%, low considered error. In our case DEA test measured (Figures 2 and 3) error was lower than 2.5%, that is considered with good precision.

References:

[1] Hilker, Brent & Fields, Kimberly & Stern, Abraham & Space, Brian & Zhang, X. & Harmon, Julie. (2010). Dielectric analysis of poly(methyl methacrylate) zinc(II) mono-pinacolborane diphenylporphyrin composites. Polymer. 51. 4790-4805. 10.1016/j.polymer.2010.08.049.

[2] Mahapatra, S. & Vadahanambi, Sridhar & Choudhary, Ram Naresh & Tripathy, D.. (2008). AC conductivity and positive temperature coefficient effect in microcellular EPDM vulcanizates. Polymer Composites. 29. 1125 - 1136. 10.1002/pc.20383.

[3] Guarrotxena, N., Mudarra, M. Influence of polymethylmethacrylate microstructure on its conductive properties at high temperatures. Journal of Nature Science and Sustainable Technology, 13(3), 239-252, 2019.

[3] Vassilikou-Dova, Aglaia & Kalogeras, Ioannis M. (2008). Dielectric analysis (DEA). 10.1002/9780470423837.ch6.

[4] A. Franck. Dielectric Characterization. TA Intruments. September 2012. http://www.tainstruments.com/pdf/literature/APN032%20Dielectric%20characterization_V1_ajf_30SEP12.pdf

[5] Schaumburg, G., & Wilmer, D. Improving the Accuracy of Dielectric Measurements. Novcontrol Technologies. February 2018. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4380/7f1454cdbe54a9c176d16a82ba22ca4d0ca4.pdf

[6] Perez Aparicio, Roberto & Crauste-Thibierge, Caroline & Cottinet, Denis & Tanase, Marius & Metz, Pascal & Bellon, Ludovic & Naert, A. & Ciliberto, Sergio. (2015). Simultaneous and accurate measurement of the dielectric constant at many frequencies spanning a wide range. Review of Scientific Instruments. 86. 044702. 10.1063/1.4916260.

[7] J.H. Wendorff, Th. Fuhrmann. Dielectric spectroscopy and the interaction of light and matter. Dielectrics Newsletter. Scientific newsletter for dielectric spectroscopy. Issue July 1994. https://www.novocontrol.de/newsletter/DNL02.PDF

Point 4: In line 166, 166 p.4 “the lower in elongation at spoil is related to the imperfect interfacial adhesion between components.” Give a more detailed explanation of what interfacial adhesions is and why the compounding will change the interfacial adhesion.

Response 4: Thank you for comment. A more detailed explanation, about lower in elongation at spoil is related to the imperfect interfacial adhesion between components, is provided in these lines (163-167).

Point 5: In line 202, “The carbon atoms (conductive) are placed between the chains of the polymer, so they indirectly decrease the chain-chain distance.” There is no evidence to support this interpretation. The chain-chain distance is not easy to be changed by physical compounding process.

Response 5: Agreed with the reviewer. The conclusions in line 202, and specifically changes in chain-chain distance are not supported by any specific analysis in the manuscript, so the sentence, in line 202, referred by the reviewer has been erased.

Point 6: In line 209 “The presence of a tire out of use causes the evolution of polarization by changing the structure and the dipole moments of polymer….”, There is no evidence to support this interpretation.

Response 6: Agreed, again, with the reviewer, any evidence support the interpretation, the sentence in line 209, has been changed: “The presence of a tire out of use causes the changes in dielectric behavior by changing the structure and the conductivity of polymer”, in this sense the changes in dielectric behavior with GTR is checked in the dielectric analysis, and specially in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thanks for addressing the comments.

Author Response

Reviewer 2 Report

Authors have satisfactorily replied to queries of my previous review report. Accept. 

Author Response

Reviewer 3 Report

Authors should check the manuscript for more details.for instance,

  error typing in P6. first line "  be interpreted as worse electrical behavior (lees (less) electrical resistivity)

Author Response

We sent the manuscript for English editing and the manuscript has been improved.