AALTO UNIVERSITY

School of Chemical Technology

CHEM-E2110 Polymer Technology Laboratory Exercises

0.0 REPORT TEMPLATE

Anonymous Student
Ke N, 12345L

Experiment done 4.2.2015

Report submitted 7.2.2015

Instructor Charlie Chemist

Abstract

The laboratory report starts with an abstract which is placed on its own page before
the table of contents. The abstract includes briefly:
1. The purpose of the work
2. The experiments that were performed
3. The main results
4. The most important conclusions drawn from the results

The purpose of the abstract is to help the reader interested in the topic to decide
whether the report is one which they should read entirely.

The abstract is mainly written in the past tense. Eg., This study investigates… The
results were… From this, it was concluded that…

The abstract is a report about the experiments that you performed. It does not include
general background information (DSC analysis is a commonly used method, since…)
or references to the literature.

A good length for the abstract is about 0.5 page. Think of what is really essential in
your work.

About the general layout:

When doing the report, try to follow the layout presented in this template as precisely
as possible including the cover page, main text, figures, and tables. Use font Times
New Roman and line spacing 1.5. Justify the rows (alignment = justified). More
information about writing a report can be found in “Guide to writing literature and lab
reports” on Into.
Table of contents

1. Introduction............................................................................................................1
2. Materials and Methods...........................................................................................1
3. Results....................................................................................................................2
4. Discussion..............................................................................................................3
5. Answers to questions..............................................................................................4
6. Comments..............................................................................................................4
7. References..............................................................................................................4

List of appendices

Appendix 1. E.g. Laboratory diary

Appendix 2. E.g. Laboratory results
1. Introduction

The purpose of the Introduction is to answer the question why this work was done.
Explain in the Introduction the purpose of the work and introduce the experiments
generally (no exact numbers to the Introduction!).

In addition, explain some general background information about the analysis methods
that you have used. Remember to give the references but do not copy the literature
directly! The list of references is added to the end of the report.

2. Materials and methods

The aim of the Materials and methods section is to answer the question how this work
was done. Anyone should be able to repeat the experiments without additional
information based on this section.

The materials and methods section is written in the past tense. E.g., The thermal
properties of the polymers were determined with DSC… The experiments were
performed at 25 °C...

The information given about the materials is type, producer, and product name. For
the equipment, the purpose of use, model, and producer are introduced. The
instructions of the equipment are not repeated, since the reader is expected to know
how to use the required equipment. Instead, all the parameters are carefully listed,
e.g., pressure, temperature, concentrations, masses, etc.

If any equations are needed in the work, those are introduced in this section. The
equations are numbered and all the symbols are explained.

E.g. The crystallinity was calculated with equation (1),

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 ΔH f
C= ∗100 %
ΔH c , (1)

where C is crystallinity, Hf is the experimental heat of fusion (J/g), and Hf is the
heat of fusion of totally crystalline polymer (J/g).

The materials and methods section does not include

 general information about the methods used. E.g., The density of the
material can be measured by immersing it in the column… This kind of
text belongs to the Introduction.
 anything about the results. They are introduced in the Results section.
 evaluations about whether the experiments were successful. E.g. The
analysis was done at 25 oC, which was not reasonable, since… The results
and their reliability is evaluated in the Discussion section.

3. Results

This section introduces the results obtained. They are preferably presented in a table
or as a graph. Every value is not presented since they are shown in the laboratory
diary which is attached to the report. The Heading of a table is placed above the table
and the heading of a figure under the figure. Every table and figure has a heading it
and you must refer to every table and figure in the text! Table 1 and Figure 1 show
how the tables and figures are made. There is a dot at the end of the heading!

Table 1. Immersion heights for the samples.

Sample Immersion height (cm)
1. 28.7
2. 32.6
3. 35

2
 7
6
5
1/t (1/min)

4
3
2
1
0
0.000 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010
3
c (mol/dm )

Figure 1.The effect of the co-catalyst concentration to the length of the initiation phase.

If the results are calculated with an equation, the equation must be presented in the
Materials and methods section. In the results section, one example calculation is
show.

The Results section does not include

 descriptions of the analysis methods. That is made in the Materials and
Methods section.
 discussion or conclusions about the results or their reliability. It is
presented in the Discussion section. Concentrate on the facts in this
section.

4. Discussion

Present here the conclusions drawn from the results and evaluate their reliability. You
can say, e.g., what kind of logic was observed in the results. A separate error analysis
is not required, but you should evaluate the sensibility of the results, the magnitude of
the results and possible error sources.

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Compare your results to the literature or the specifications given by the producer.
Remember to give the references in the list at the end of the report.

5. Answers to questions

Answers to questions that are given in the lab instructions.

6. Comments

Tell your comments about the sensibility of the work, degree of difficulty,
shortcomings, and suggestions for improvements. Report also the time spent in the
laboratory and for the report.

7. References

The list of references is made according to the “Guide to writing literature and lab
reports” (available on Into).