Research Facilities
Home 禄 Faculties of Science 禄 Departments 禄 Chemical Sciences 禄Analytical听activities in our department include water analysis for persistent organic pollutants, cosmetic听ingredients for quality check; drug residues in edible products; pharmacology of bioactive compounds; primary and secondary metabolites from plant sources; method development for optimisation of analyte detection;听analysis of synthetic听organic听and organometallic compounds as well as the听characterization of nanomaterials. To support these research activities, the department boasts听a myriad of key听analytical equipment听and techniques听that include spectroscopic,听chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques such as Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometers,听Ion or Liquid听Chromatography听coupled with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (IC or LC–ICP–MS),听ICP-OES,听Gas Chromatography (GC), Liquid Chromatography (LC), GC-Mass Spectrometry (MS)听and LC-MS, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), 听Total Organic Carbon (TOC)听Analysers,听CHN Elemental Analyser,听Fourier-Transform Infrared听(FT-IR), Ultra Violet-Visible (UV-Vis) and Fluorescence听spectrophotometers. Furthermore, these instruments are also听used to train and equip undergraduate students with relevant chemical analysis听skills.听听Some of these instruments are listed below.
Gas Chromatography听

Agilent GC System

Bruker Scion GC
ICP-OES and听ICP-MS
The Department of Chemical Sciences听has developed a wide range of expertise in the analysis of several elements within a diverse and wide range of samples; such as, water (tap, river, lake, dam or pond), food, soil, wastewater, acid mine drainage, oil, and many more.. This analysis has been achieved with either one of our state of the art ICP-OES or cutting edge ICP-MS. About 70 elements in the periodic table (except C, H, O, N, the halides & inert gasses) can be analysed by these systems, and we routinely analyse from part per million (ppm) to as low as parts per trillion (ppt) concentration levels. The department currently has a Thermo iCAP 6500 ICP-OES and Shimadzu ICPE-9820 to measure major and trace elements down to upper ppb levels while an Agilent 7900 ICP-MS system performs ultratrace analysis.


NMR
The Department of Chemical Sciences has access to a Bruker Avance III 400 MHz NMR spectrometer that is equipped with a 60-slot auto sampler as well as a Bruker Avance III HD 500 MHz NMR spectrometer that is equipped with a 24-slot auto sampler and has solid鈥搒tate capabilities. The 400 MHz spectrometer housed in Chemical Sciences Department is a routine instrument equipped with a BBO probe whereas the 500 MHz that has three probes (BBO, BBI and Solid-State) is housed at听听(The Central Analytical Facility of the Faculty of Science). The instruments can perform multinuclear experiments that include 1D NMR (1H,听13C,听31P, etc.), 2D (COSY,听1H-13C HSQC,听1H-15N HMBC, etc.) and solid state NMR (CP MAS,听29Si,听195Pt, etc.) to support research. Experiments can be performed at variable temperatures depending on the structural characteristics of molecules being investigated. We also have a 60 MHz benchtop Magritek Spinsolve 60 NMR spectrometer. The instrument uses a solid-state magnet, operating at a 1H frequency of 60 MHz. While this is not the strongest magnet available, it does come with some features that make it ideal for teaching and research applications, it is convenient and easy to operate and maintain.
STA7000 Series Simultaneous Thermogravimetric Analyser
The Department of Applied Chemistry has a Hitachi simultaneous thermogravimetric analyzer (STA7000 Series). The instrument is capable of routine thermogravimetric analysis on a variety of samples from ambient听to 1500 潞C under reducing, oxidising or inert conditions. In addition, the instrument is fully capable of running DTA/DSC experiments over a wide of temperatures听and is equipped with the 鈥楻eal View STA鈥 sample observation option. This option allows for the real-time imaging of sample changes during TGA and DTA/DSC experiments, along with the requisite software to carry out dimensional analysis on the captured images.听Currently, the department analysis a variety of samples; such as听polymers, composites, carbon materials/nanomaterials, ceramics, ores, and a range of R&D materials.

Other Instruments
| Rheomixer | AAS Varian | AUTOLAB Electrochemical Workstation |
| BET Surface Area and Porosity Analyzer | Contact Angle Measurement | Cross Flow Water Filtration System |
| DIONEX ICS-2000 | Fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectrophotometry | GC Headspace |
| Forward Osmosis Water Filtration System | Freeze Dryer | HPLC (HP) |
| GC SRI | Nanosizer | TGA-FTIR |
| HPLC (THERMO) | Polarimeter | Polarographic Analyzer |
| UNISCAN Electrochemical Workstation | UV/VIS ULTROSPEC | ZAHNER听Electrochemical Workstation |
