The Department of Chemistry is one of the largest departments in the University. Our international reputation for research was shown by the last Research Assessment Exercise which rated 70% of our research output as "internationally excellent" or "world leading." Much of our research has been featured on the front covers of top international research journals. Our four interdisciplinary research clusters include excellence in all of the familiar branches of chemistry but organised in a way which suits our particular strengths, providing the foundations for a substantial and varied portfolio of research grants, an interface with industry, and collaborations with other departments in the university.
Chemical Biology
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Polymers, Materials, and Surface Chemistry
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Spectroscopy and Theoretical Chemistry
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Synthetic Chemistry
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Our research in Chemical Biology is aimed at understanding at the molecular level the fundamental chemical issues of structure, recognition, reactivity and catalysis which govern biological processes from genetic information storage to enzyme catalysis.
We have internationally-renowned expertise in polymer science, materials chemistry and nano-scale surface engineering, with applications ranging from tissue engineering to molecular electronics.
Theory and spectroscopy research is aimed at measuring and understanding the properties of molecules and materials, and includes the computational study of chemical reactions and fundamental aspects of aromaticity, and a range of laser spectroscopy techniques to study structure and excited state properties.
Synthesis underpins all of chemistry and research in the synthesis cluster includes new organic methodology, crystal engineering, organometallic and supramolecular chemistry, and the study of properties and applications of the new compounds.