Ms. Ref. No.: SAA-D-22-00358
Title: Mixed-Ligand Gold Nanoparticles Based Optical Sensor Array for the Recognition and Quantification of Seven Toxic Metals
Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Dear Dr. Offer Zeiri,
Reviewers have now commented on your paper. You will see that they are advising that you revise your manuscript. If you are prepared to undertake the work required, I would be pleased to reconsider my decision.
For your guidance, reviewers' comments are appended below.
If you decide to revise the work, please submit a list of changes or a rebuttal against each point which is being raised when you submit the revised manuscript.
To submit a revision, please go to
https://www.editorialmanager.com/saa/ and login as an Author.
Your username is: OZeiri-639
If you need to retrieve password details, please go to:
http://ees.elsevier.com/saa/automail_query.asp
NOTE: Upon submitting your revised manuscript, please upload the source files for your article. For additional details regarding acceptable file formats, please refer to the Guide for Authors at:
http://www.elsevier.com/journals/spectrochimica-acta-part- a:-molecular-and-biomolecular-spectroscopy/1386-1425/guide-for-authors
When submitting your revised paper, we ask that you include the following items:
Manuscript and Figure Source Files (mandatory)
We cannot accommodate PDF manuscript files for production purposes. We also ask that when submitting your revision you follow the journal formatting guidelines. Figures and tables may be embedded within the source file for the submission as long as they are
of sufficient resolution for Production.For any figure that cannot be embedded within the source file (such as *.PSD Photoshop files), the original figure needs to be uploaded separately. Refer to the Guide for Authors for additional information.
http://www.elsevier.com/journals/spectrochimica-acta-part- a:-molecular-and-biomolecular-spectroscopy/1386-1425/guide-for-authors
Highlights (mandatory)
Highlights consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum
85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point). See the following website for more information
http://www.elsevier.com/highlights
Graphical Abstract (mandatory)
Graphical Abstracts should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Refer to the following website for more information:
http://www.elsevier.com/graphicalabstracts
On your Main Menu page is a folder entitled "Submissions Needing Revision". You will find your submission record there.
Finally, I would appreciate if you could submit your revised paper by Apr 30, 2022.
Note: While submitting the revised manuscript, please double check the author names provided in the submission so that authorship related changes are made in the revision stage. If your manuscript is accepted, any authorship change will involve approval from
co-authors and respective editor handling the submission and this may cause a significant delay in publishing your manuscript.
MethodsX (optional)
We invite you to submit a method article alongside your research article. This is an opportunity to get full credit for the time and money spent on developing research methods, and to increase the visibility and impact of your work. If your research article
is accepted, we will contact you with instructions on the submission process for your method article to MethodsX. On receipt at MethodsX it will be editorially reviewed and, upon acceptance, published as a separate method article. Your articles will be linked
on ScienceDirect.
Please prepare your paper using the MethodsX Guide for Authors:
https://www.elsevier.com/journals/methodsx/2215-0161/guide-for-authors (and template available here:
https://www.elsevier.com/MethodsX-template) Open access fees apply.
Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here:
https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-services/data-visualization to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.
MethodsX file (optional)
We invite you to submit a method article alongside your research article. This is an opportunity to get full credit for the time and money you have spent on developing research methods, and to increase the visibility and impact of your work. If your research
article is accepted, your method article will be automatically transferred over to the open access journal, MethodsX, where it will be editorially reviewed and published as a separate method article upon acceptance. Both articles will be linked on ScienceDirect.
Please use the MethodsX template available here when preparing your article:
https://www.elsevier.com/MethodsX-template. Open access fees apply.
Yours sincerely,
Huimin Ma
Editor
Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Reviewers' comments:
Reviewer #1: The study reported an optical sensor array based on mixed-ligand gold nanoparticles for the recognition and quantification of metals, showing the potential of mixed-ligand particles in designing sensor arrays. However, this work may be eventually
publishable but requires a major revision. The authors should discuss the experimental results more deeply and demonstrate the practical value of this work. Specific comments are as follows.
1. In the manuscript, synthesis of mixed ligand shell gold nanoparticles used the mixed-ligand solutions (1:1 MUA: MESA). But in fact, MUA and MESA these two ligands do not have the same ability to bind to gold nanoparticles because of their different
structures and properties. So the ratio of mixed ligands on the shell gold nanoparticles might not be 1:1. And how about other different ratios of mixed ligands for synthesis of mixed ligand shell gold nanoparticles? Do different ratios of mixed ligands improve
or decrease the accuracy of experimental results? It is suggested that the optimization of more experimental synthesis needs to be supplemented and improved.
2. In the introduction section, the authors said "Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are an auspicious low-cost tool for on-site metal sensing" and "minimization and cost reduction requirements favor using the minimal number of sensing units possible". And many
sensor arrays are based on GNPs or use the same or a smaller number of receptors for the detection of metal ions. The authors need to specify the advantages of their findings to previous studies.
3. How do the classification trajectories work for the classification and quantification of seven metals? Is it through the angle between two trajectories or other parameters?
4. Please strengthen the discussion of the results and avoid simply repeating the measurement procedure.
5. What is the detection limit of this method for each metal? If the method cannot identify metal ions at realistic concentration levels, the paper is of very limited application.
6. How about this sensor array's practicability? In the manuscript, this method was just verified in the prepared solution for the classification and quantification of seven metals. Is this method also effective in some actual water samples? There is a
lack of detailed cases or applications in the paper to demonstrate the practicability of this work.
7. The manuscript used a novel sensor array for the classification and quantification of seven metals: As3+, Ba2+, Cd2+, Ce3+, Cr3+, Hg2+, Pb2+. Do other common metal ions in aqueous solutions affect this method? The selectivity experiment needs to be
supplemented.
8. Please provide complete information on "CPI".
9. In the reference section, some of the journal abbreviations are not standardized, such as "ACS Sensors" and "Sensors Actuators, B Chem".
Reviewer #2: In this manuscript, a sensor array was constructed by functionalizing gold nanoparticles with mercaptoundecanoic acid, 2-mercaptoethanesulfonate and their mixture as the ligands. The sensor array was successfully applied for sensing of 7 kinds
of toxic metal ions, and the proposed "classification trajectory" seems to be interesting to me. I suggest publication of the manuscript after a minor revision.
1. Titles for the axes in Figure 3 were misleading. Only the type of ligand was indicated while the real meaning of the axis was missing. The meaning of each axis represents the absorbance ratios of corresponding GNP sensor upon addition of different concentrations
of metal ions.
2. Table 1, please change "Theoretical concentration" into "added concentration".
3. Some important literatures about metal ions recognition should be cited. (Such as Anal. Chem., 2021, 93, 14256-14262.; Sens. Actuators B, 2020, 310, 127855.; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 20306-20312.)
Data in Brief (optional):
We invite you to convert your supplementary data (or a part of it) into an additional journal publication in Data in Brief, a multi-disciplinary open access journal. Data in Brief articles are a fantastic way to describe supplementary data and associated metadata,
or full raw datasets deposited in an external repository, which are otherwise unnoticed. A Data in Brief article (which will be reviewed, formatted, indexed, and given a DOI) will make your data easier to find, reproduce, and cite.
You can submit to Data in Brief when you upload your revised manuscript. To do so, complete the template and follow the co-submission instructions found here:
www.elsevier.com/dib-template. If your manuscript is accepted, your Data in Brief submission will automatically be transferred to Data in Brief for editorial review and publication.
Please note: an open access Article Publication Charge (APC) is payable by the author or research funder to cover the costs associated with publication in Data in Brief and ensure your data article is immediately and permanently free to access by all. For the
current APC see:
www.elsevier.com/journals/data-in-brief/2352-3409/open-access-journal
Please contact the Data in Brief editorial office at
dib-me@elsevier.com or visit the Data in Brief homepage (
www.journals.elsevier.com/data-in-brief/) if you have questions or need further information.
For further assistance, please visit our customer support site at
http://help.elsevier.com/app/answers/list/p/7923. Here you can search for solutions on a range of topics, find answers to frequently asked questions and learn more about EM via interactive tutorials. You will also find our 24/7 support contact details should
you need any further assistance from one of our customer support representatives.
#AU_SAA#
To ensure this email reaches the intended recipient, please do not delete the above code
__________________________________________________
In compliance with data protection regulations, you may request that we remove your personal registration details at any time. (Use the following URL:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/saa/login.asp?a=r). Please contact the publication office if you have any questions.