Chemistry Facilities

Our brand-new suite of chemistry teaching laboratories were designed, built and equipped to be the best teaching laboratories in the UK.  

Wet Labs

In our main undergraduate wet labs, we have 40 dedicated fume cupboards for undergraduate practicals, enabling the teaching of key practical and fundamental skills for up to 80 chemistry students. Alongside the equipment that you might expect to find in a chemistry wet lab (melting points, rotary evaporators etc.) our laboratory also houses a cutting-edge, benchtop NMR. The laboratory learning environment is further enhanced by a state-of-the-art AV system and the ability to live stream experiments directly from any part of the university into any area of the wet laboratory. Each student workstation is furnished with its own touch-screen PC, allowing students the freedom to revisit their pre-lab simulations and online information during the practical experiment. Pre-lab simulations and quizzes give students the opportunity to investigate techniques and to familiarise themselves with the methods and risk assessments before they enter the laboratory. 

Instrument Lab

Also located within the chemistry hub is a state-of-the-art instrument lab, used for teaching, and cross-college/university and industrial collaborations. Within this laboratory, students have access to a suite of UV-Vis spectrophotometers and FTIR spectrometers. This laboratory also holds a thermal analyser, gas chromatography-mass spectrometers (GC-MS), a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) mass spectrometer and an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). It is our ambition to grow and expand this analytical suite, reflected in the continued investment in our research laboratories on the upper floor. 

Also nestled within our chemistry hub is a brand-new computer laboratory. An ideal flat and flexible teaching space for group learning. Clusters of touchscreens, all-in-one PCs facilitate innovative, small-group, interactive workshops, where collaborative learning is facilitated by a large screen at each workstation cluster.