Enhanced X-ray Visibility of Shape Memory Polymer Foam Using Iodine Motifs and Tantalum Microparticles
, Landon D. Nash 2, Grace K. Fletcher 1, Thomas Cheung 1, Andrew Soewito 1 and Duncan J. Maitland 1,2,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This study presents interesting evolutions for the X-ray visibility of shape memory polymer foams for use as neurovascular embolization devices. The overall paper is well presented and the sections are adequately supported. A check on formatting and english is necessary because some little errors were checked. Moreover, the thermal and mechanical analysis of samples AT_2%T and AT_4%T are not completely analyzed, the relative results between the two samples are very similar and far from those found for sample AT_8%T. If possible an explanation of this difference should be added. Moreover, the mechanical tests are performed with tensile test, probably it would have been more suitable to analyze materials such as foams through a mechanical compression test. Finally the conclusion section is absent and should be added.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
I had great pleasure in reading the peer-reviewed article which is very well written and logically structured. There are several minor remarks and one more serious one.
Minor notes:
page 2, line 76: it is necessary to clarify which mechanical properties are being discussed;
page 9: in Fig. 3a the curve for AT does not correspond to the table values below.
More serious note:
The article does not contain the results of the SME characteristics. It is not shown how they change when tantalum particles are added to AT. According to SEM data, the introduction of tantalum particles can impair the SME characteristics. Since the authors used the DMA method, it would be very good if they could also check the SME characteristics of the resulting materials. In my opinion, this is important for this study, since the ultimate goal of using such materials is to use them as SMP, and this is also included in the title of this work.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
