Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (the bibliography) followed by a brief, descriptive, and evaluative paragraph (the annotation). Annotations are different from summaries because they can be:

• Critical / analytical
• Provide clarity
• Situate research with other research or describe the author's point of view 

Where do I begin?

As you research your NanoTRACTS paper, you will be creating a list of articles that are good candidates for evaluation. Think about how the article you chose fits into the research that you are finding. Does it extend other research? Does it make a new discovery? Does it do both? These questions will help you form your annotative paragraph.

Elements to review in an article

Librarians always recommend that you pay careful attention to:

• The author's credentials. For our nanotmaterials course, most articles you will find are peer-reviewed scientific articles, so the veracity of the author's expertise is generally not in question.
• Date of publication. If the article is an older one, does it lay the foundation for the NanoTRACTS article that you have chosen? Are there many references to it?
• Coverage. Does the article recognize the work that has come before it? Does it organize itself in such a way that you can clearly see how it has built on prior research?

Writing your annotation

Ensure that your annotation has: a brief summary of the source, notes about the article's date and current research, discussion and evaluation of the source, and its usefulness. 

Annotated bibliography (6 sentences)

The authors demonstrate a self-starting solar-heating siphon-capillary oil skimmer (referred to by the abbreviation of S-SOS) that can harvest solar energy, gravitational potential energy, and solid surface energy to enable efficient oil spill recovery in a self-pumping manner. The proof-of-concept technique uses vertically oriented graphene nanosheets on a monolith of graphite felt to create an all-carbon hierarchical architecture. This multi-national, multi-institutional research team, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Australian Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the University of Nevada at Reno, demonstrates a new oil recovery process that combines a series of techniques and methods that improve substantially on other methods. While prior research has focused on cleaning up oil spills and recycling adsorbed oil, the methods have poor stability, inability to self-restart, and lack selectivity for fluid transport in real-world applications. This article demonstrates how the S-SOS and a specific inverted U-shaped porous architecture overcomes these obstacles to create an efficient skimmer for oil spill cleanup that is markedly different from prior research, solving many problems at once. This article is a promising research avenue and solid foundation for more research.

Anatomy of the annotation

Brief summary

The authors demonstrate a self-starting solar-heating siphon-capillary oil skimmer (referred to by the abbreviation of S-SOS) that can harvest solar energy, gravitational potential energy, and solid surface energy to enable efficient oil spill recovery in a self-pumping manner. The proof-of-concept technique uses an inverted U-shaped vertically oriented graphene nanosheets on a monolith of graphite felt to create an all-carbon hierarchical architecture. 

Current/trustworthy

This multi-national, multi-institutional research team, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Australian Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the University of Nevada at Reno, demonstrates a new oil recovery process that combines a series of techniques and methods that improve substantially on other methods. 

Discussion / usefulness

While prior research has focused on cleaning up oil spills and recycling adsorbed oil, the methods have poor stability, inability to self-restart, and lack selectivity for fluid transport in real-world applications. This article demonstrates how the S-SOS and a specific inverted U-shaped porous architecture overcomes these obstacles to create an efficient skimmer for oil spill cleanup that is markedly different from prior research. This article is a promising research avenue and solid foundation for more research.

ACS Style Guide

Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) - Annotated Bibliographies
Contains examples of annotated bibliographies in a variety of disciplines.

University of Denver - Chemistry of the Elements - Annotated Bibliography
This library guide provides a link to an original article and an ACS-style annotated bibliography entry.