For Chemistry students, STEMLab provides three state-of-the-art laboratories designed to allow students to gain extensive practical experience of modern chemistry. Chemistry research laboratories in the Sir David Davies Building adjacent to STEMLab were also recently refurbished to provide further modern research facilities for students and researchers.
Synthesis lab
The synthetic chemistry teaching laboratory, located within the STEMLab building, has 36 fume hoods available for undergraduate teaching. You are able to use a wide variety of equipment including stirrer hotplates and the use of a laboratory microwave reactor, then use rotary evaporators to remove the solvent. Characterisation of the material is carried out in a separate suite, attached to the main lab. There is a selection of instrumentation available including 2 benchtop NMR spectrometers capable of processing proton, carbon and fluorine nuclei experiments, 4 InfraRed spectrometers and 4 UV/vis spectrophotometers, as well as 2 magnetic susceptibility balances, an HPLC instrument and several conductivity probes. The lab is run by a technical team who specialise in synthetic chemistry and support the students with their practical work throughout their time in the laboratories.
Bioscience and Bioengineering lab
For biological-related modules within our Chemistry programmes, we have access to state-of-the-art biological laboratories to provide our students with an opportunity to explore several different aspects of biology, such as biochemistry, pharmacology and microbiology. We also have access to a specialist tissue culture laboratory which has ten Biological Safety Cabinets where cell work can be introduced to our students. Specialist equipment includes, plate readers which allow us to carry out a range of industry-standard biological assays, such as ELISA and DNA quantification, molecular biology equipment such as thermocyclers and gel electrophoresis equipment, Chemidoc visualiser, microscopes, a flow cytometer and several UV spectrometers.
Physical/Analytical Lab
The Physical & Analytical Chemistry teaching laboratory is primarily focused on measurement-based experiments concerning either the study of chemical processes or the quantitative/qualitative determination of unknown analytical samples. The room is equipped with 7 fume cupboards for the handling of hazardous substances, and also features a room-wide audiovisual system for the delivery of electronic teaching materials. The range of up-to-date scientific instrumentation and apparatus available to students includes the following items: fluorescence spectrometers; UV-visible & infra red absorption spectrophotometers; microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometer; electrospray mass spectrometer; quadrupole mass spectrometer with gas chromatograph; liquid chromatographs with UV absorbance and refractive index detectors; gas chromatographs with flame ionisation detectors; precision analytical balances; pH and conductivity meters.
Computing
The University offers high-quality facilities for computing, including general computer laboratories and support from a team of systems specialists.
