PB2A

Case Study for Chemistry, for Atomic Layer Composition, on Trimethylaluminum/water Process

            Chemistry case studies, like any other genre of text, is going to have conventions, or common features to look for or that exist among most if not all texts of that genre. I would expect scholarly articles to follow conventions more than some other genres, such as novels, comics, song lyrics, etc., because there is little room for creative input. This particular scholarly article is in the genre of Chemistry scholarly articles, more particularly for “atomic layer composition,” and even more particularly for the “chemistry scholarly articles regarding atomic layer composition, with an emphasis on the trimethylaluminum/water process.” The conventions particular to “atomic layer composition” and “trimethylaluminum/water process” are not really going to be considered, but the broader conventions of the “Scholarly articles on Chemistry” will be considered.

If this particular article were to be used to represent scholarly chemistry articles as a whole, then it would be safe to say that they generally start with a title that describes the subject in great detail, such as “A case study: surface chemistry and surface structure of catalytic aluminas, as studied by vibrational spectroscopy of absorbed species.” Following are the names of the researchers the department, college/university, and city/country, involved.  It seems conventional for chemistry scholarly articles to begin with an abstract. This provides a very short description or summary of what the article will be about and what kind of research has been done; it also discusses what is to be expected and explained in the article. Following the abstract, an introduction, labeled “introduction,” is provided in the beginning of the article. “Introduction” is labeled “1,” indicating that each topic in the article is going to be numbered. Visual representations, such as graphs, are included in the article, and sub topics are included within the main, larger topics (2. Vibrational modes… 2.1. vibrations of the solid). A conclusion—still numbered among the larger topics—and a list of references is also included. There are a lot of in-text symbols and formulas as well.

            The amount of chemistry-specific jargon used, such as “thermodynamically stable corundum phase,” “hexagonal system,” etc., and the many in-text symbols and formulas that are included indicate that this article’s intended audience includes peers of the chemistry discipline—it is not for novices of chemistry, although it may be for students of chemistry. This article has a depersonalized and somewhat pedantic tone, again because of its intended audience, but also because of its purpose, which is to lecture on the findings of the research.

            Although no questions are raised directly in this article, there are answers to questions that may have been raised and may have necessitated the research done in the case study. For instance, it is revealed in the abstract that the study focuses on the various aspects of the surface chemistry of aluminas—so the main question is most likely what are the properties of the various aspects of the aluminas’ surface chemistry?  This article mainly provides a dissertation on the characteristics of surface chemistry, and does not involve much original research, if at all; it is more of a compilation of the models and theories from older chemists that describe the specific aspects of the surface chemistry of the different aluminas. Related larger concepts are grouped together, however, such as the acidity and basicity of certain aluminas.