Key facilities
- X-ray powder diffraction
- Single crystal X-ray diffraction
- Mass spectrometry
- NMR (250/300/400/500 MHz, multinuclear facility)
Our facilities allow us to undertake many activities:
- Elemental Analysis
- Carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen content in materials
- Atomic Absorption
- Metal contents in solution. (e.g. water analysis, pollution in rivers).
- Infrared spectroscopy
- Functionalities in a molecule in solid or liquid.
- Ultraviolet spectroscopy
- Concentrations and fingerprinting of transition metal complexes.
- Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
- Specific heat, melting temperatures, transition enthalpies, phase transformations, phase diagrams, crystallization temperatures and degree of crystallinity - useful for studies on polymers.
- Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
- Weight loss of a sample as it is heated. Useful for determination of thermal stability, composition and purity.
- Corrosion analysis and electrochemical testing
- AC impedance measurements and electroanalysis.
- Langmuir monolayer analysis
- p-A chracterisation.
- Brewster angle microscopy
- Phase determination
Labs and equipment
Our buildings provide world-class, cutting-edge facilities to our students and staff with all laboratories purpose-designed to a high standard.
If you require characterisation or analysis to be performed please find out more information on the Chemical Characterisation and Analysis Facility (CCAF) website.
The Microscopy and Analysis Suite (MAS) also have a wide range of facilities available to us. Students are trained in the use of this equipment by a dedicated research officer in charge of the facility.
1 South Building
The University has invested £9 million in this building. It houses our administrative centre together with all the academic and research support staff, postgraduates, final year project students and our expanding NMR, X-ray and analytical instrumentation.
The facilities available have been greatly improved in the new building by:
- Integration of all research activities into one cohesive unit.
- A high quality research environment in laboratories equipped to high safety standards.
- Work space and rest areas outside of laboratory areas for all staff and researchers.
- Efficient use of space, instrumentation facilities and centralised services.
- A special operations synthetic unit built to "Zone 1" classification.
- Dedicated computational facilities and extensive networking capabilities.
The building was officially opened by Lord Sainsbury, the Minister for Science.
3 South Building
Our £3 million, two-storey building provides state-of-the-art laboratories for teaching undergraduate chemistry. The building is located next to the Chemistry Building, which holds the Department's research laboratories and administration centre.
3 South houses both the synthetic and non-synthetic teaching laboratories in addition to a computational chemistry suite and our Mass Spectrometry Service.
