Tips on Communication Paper
Experimental Chemistry I, CH 362/362H
Winter 2009
Also see the handout titled "Guidelines for Communication Paper" and the samples of professional chemical communication journal articles given out in class on Jan 27/28. The following tips are meant as examples of what you might include and is not meant to be limiting. You must decide for yourself what is most important to include in your brief communication paper on your discovery. Include a list of references at the end of the article and cite the reference number for your literature source as you need to within the text (see sample articles for format) .
1. Use scientific Tables, Figures and reaction Schemes as appropriate. Each
should be numbered and tables and figures should have a descriptive title or
caption.
Refer to the number of the table, figure, or scheme in the text as you discuss the significance of these
data.
2. Include concise account of synthetic procedures (don't retype your
notebook records!) "Procedures" include synthesis, the workup with separatory
funnel, and purification for the acid and the ester.
3. Report
yields for each step and the overall for two steps.
4. For acid and for ester vacuum distillations include, for example, boiling
point (bp), pressure, mass, with bp's corrected to 1 atm and compare with known
literature values for normal bp's. Cite reference number for literature source.
5. GC data for the best fraction of ester.
6. IR peak table with the most important peaks listed and a corresponding
literature value and functional group for each peak of interest.
7. Compare and contrast the IR spectrum for the acid with that for the ester.
8. Compare the average of the measured ester RI +/- stdev at either 20 or 25
°C
to a literature value at the same temperature and wavelength. (Please do not
include an "orphaned" table of RI values.)
9. For
Characterizations include some instrumental parameters, such as, for GC, column stationary phase, for FTIR and for RI, the sampling method used and make/model of instruments.
10.
Include a numbered reference list and cite the references by number in the text
as needed. Again see the sample communication papers handed out in class
for examples of what to do.