Research and Learning
Research is a crucial part of any chemistry degree course. From year 3 onwards, you will spend at least 12-15 hours a week in the lab on any of our programmes, while MChem students spend half of year 4 on their final research project.
Extended projects in year 3
The second half of the 3rd year is focussed on extended projects for both BSc and MChem courses. You will spend approximately 100 hours in an area of chemistry of your choosing, and be directly supervised by a member of staff. For the BSc courses, this provides a solid grounding in chemistry, enabling you to progress directly into a wider range of employment, or to continue with your studies at the Masters (MSc) level.
Schools projects
As part of the BSc extended projects, you have the opportunity to develop experiments for use in schools.
Projects this year included; 'Rude Science – Farting Putty', 'Writing using Gold Nanoparticles' and 'Colours of the Sweet Shop'.
MChem projects in year 4
Since MChem courses are targeted at students pursuing a career as research chemists, you will work very closely with our internationally leading research groups within the department. You can choose which area of chemistry you would like to work in, and will spend approximately 250 hours across the year working on a project as part of one of our research groups.
Many of our MChem students’ projects are published and recent examples include:
- Goulding H V and Hulse S E; ‘Yb3O(OH)6Cl×.2H2O: An Anion-Exchangeable Hydroxide with a Cationic Inorganic Framework Structure’.
- Matthews M;‘The synthesis of, and characterization of the dynamic processes occurring in Pd(II) chelate complexes of 2-pyridyldiphenylphosphine’.
- O’Neill L D; ‘Macro-/microporous MOF composite beads’.