Infrared Spectroscopy Studies of Aluminum Oxide and Metallic Aluminum Powders, Part I: Thermal Dehydration and Decomposition
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is essentially ready for publication. Some very minor comments are given in the text.
The detailed comment is provided below.
The study is dedicated to the vibrational spectroscopy of Al oxides and hydroxides at varying temperature conditions.
The data presented in the article may be of interest for inorganic chemistry since these phases have functional applications. The data obtained can also be used in the study of natural samples: in geology, mineralogy, and crystal chemistry. The data are new and soundly presented. The quality and topic of the article meet the journal requirements. I can’t say that the article is very exciting (to my taste), but the results obtained are adequately presented there.
Now there is a trend towards a detailed characterization of IR spectra. Works on most compounds are not the first description of the spectra, but they contribute to a more detailed interpretation of the bands obtained, the correlation of the bands with structural features, and the study of the evolution of the crystal structure with increasing temperature. This work is an example of such a trend. The advantage of this work is that a number of Al-O and Al-OH phases are considered jointly (by comparison with each other), which makes it possible to determine common features (analogies) and individual features of similar compounds. The results obtained in the article will be useful for express diagnostics of aluminum phases and prediction of their properties.
The paper was easy to read. However, I am not a native speaker. The text is clear. Perhaps it could be written a little more concisely, but I have no significant complaints
The article is logically structured and one follows from the other. The main questions posed in the Introduction are in line with obtained results and conclusions.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
The authors wish to thank you for your careful review of our work. We corrected the words included in the pdf review of the work. We also added more specific data to the abstract to address your comment. Please let us know if we need to address any additional issues.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper deals with a very promising topic on experimental investigation of dehydration and decomposition behavior of alumina and metallic aluminum powders using in situ DRIFTS. I would strongly suggest the article for publication. Its content, novelty and industrial importance make it a good fit for Powders. The article is well written and interesting from a practical point of view. The introduction provides useful background information for the readers to understand the study. The experimental research has been properly designed. It is quite easy for the reader to assess the paper structure as the figures and tables are properly linked to the corresponding text section. It is certainly useful to the scientific community and deserves publication. I would recommend this manuscript publish as it.
Author Response
The author's thank you for your review of our work. The reviewer did not ask for any revisions, so please let us know if there is anything we need to do for this work. Thank you for your time spent reading about our work.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript entitled "Infrared Spectroscopy Studies of Aluminum Oxide and Metallic Aluminum Powders, Part I: Thermal Dehydration and Decomposition" was presented for review.
The paper is well-written and organized work.
I can recommend to look only at the following minor issues:
1. The major part of the references is too old. Please, add into consideration and state of the art section several works of the recent years like: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14040909
https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.202100398;
2. The resolution of Figs. 1-2 should be improved.
3. Fig. 4. "Scanning electron micrograph of AR-Al sample showing few surface structural features other than satellite particles which are an artifact of their production method" - better to mark in the figure the specific features the authors are talking about to make the figure more representative.
Author Response
The authors wish to thank you for your review of our work. Please see the comments below addressing each point:
- The major part of the references is too old. Please, add into consideration and state of the art section several works of the recent years like: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14040909
https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.202100398;
We thank you for these great references. We have added these where appropriate in addition to two others in the document.
2. The resolution of Figs. 1-2 should be improved.
The resolution of both images was increased and please let us know if it meets your criteria.
3. Fig. 4. "Scanning electron micrograph of AR-Al sample showing few surface structural features other than satellite particles which are an artifact of their production method" - better to mark in the figure the specific features the authors are talking about to make the figure more representative.
We added circles to identify the satellite particles. Please let us know if this meets your criteria.
