Facilities

Access to high-quality equipment for both Chemistry and Forensic Science is crucial. 

Regular investment in our state-of-the-art laboratories  guarantees that our students have access to modern facilities with industry-standard equipment. 

Using these these cutting-edge facilities right from the start of your student journey, you'll acquire a range of invaluable practical laboratory skills and knowledge that will help you in your future career.

Our newly-refurbished labs are well equipped for synthetic and analytical techniques ranging from soft organic polymers to nanoparticles to highly sensitive organometallic species. 

In addition to conventional synthetic laboratories, we have:

• glove-boxes for both air-sensitive sample storage and preparation
  
• Schlenk lines for the handling of highly reactive chemicals
  
• a CEM microwave reactor with autosampler for high-temperature microwave-assisted synthetic procedures.

Our solid state laboratories are equipped with eight ovens and ten furnaces with the capacity to reach 1600°C. The furnaces include three-zone and tube furnaces suitable for chemical vapour transport studies in various atmospheres. 

We have also a brand-new NMR facility, which includes two 400 MHz machines. One of these is a Bruker Neo, the most up-to-date instrument on the market, which currently is installed in just three universities in the UK.

Our latest investment provides our Forensic Science students with the opportunity to find out what is involved in working at a crime scene. 

Within the house, the rooms provide crime scene simulations for scenarios such as burglary, domestic assault and suspicious death. Outside, the extensive gardens provide a different environment for students to undertake the mapping and triangulation of evidence, and consideration of buried remains. They experience the challenges of searching and documenting different evidence types in the open air.

The realistic scenarios we create help our students to develop their approaches to evidence recording and preservation, and to appreciate the importance of persistence. Extensive use of these practical sessions helps to prepare our students for the diverse nature of crime scenes they may encounter in their future careers and to develop many transferable skills for the future..

Our facilities are available for use by researchers or industry and we are always keen to hear about potential collaborative projects with industrial partners. We also provide consultancy services to businesses. Contact the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation team to learn more.