Facilities in Chemistry

The Chemistry Department has a range of facilities to support its students and researchers in the George Porter Building and neighbouring Materials Centre. These facilities are available to everyone, including outside industrial companies. These pages contain information about what we have, where it is located and who you should contact for support (internal users) and contractual enquiries (external users).

Teaching Spaces

Analytical Facilities

The Department has a range of analytical instrumentation on which, subject to availability, samples can be analysed for clients. Further details can be obtained by clicking the links or contacting the operator by email as indicated:

NMR - Please contact Gerry Griffith
Xray Crystallography - Please contact Kuldip Singh
Mass Spectrometry - Please contact Mick Lee
Atomic Absorption - Please contact Kuldip Singh
FTIR Spectroscopy - Please contact Mick Lee

*Please note these services are non-accredited.

Scientific Glassblowing

The department features its own glassblowing workshop for repairs and for bespoke glassware made by our in-house Glassblower.

Workshops

The department have the ability for mechanical and electronic repairs and manufacturing to support teaching and research.

Mechanical Workshop - Please contact Gareth Bustin
Electrical Workshop - Please contact Carl Schieferstien

Enterprise Activities

Ionic Liquid Demonstrator

The Ionic Liquid Demonstrator (ILD) is a multi-application pilot plant facility to showcase the application of ionic liquids primarily in the area of metal processing. The ILD has been funded through the EU IONMET project, Scionix and the Leicestershire Economic Partnership (LSEP). The ILD project builds on the historic and ongoing research and development activities in the Green Chemistry group at the University of Leicester to transfer its ionic liquids applications know-how to Leicestershire business. The Leicester ionic liquid applications have real potential to bring new value-added gains to existing businesses within the sub-region.

RAFT

The University of Leicester’s expertise in measuring in real-time the trace composition (VOC/OVOC) of complex mixtures of gases is being deployed through RAFT (Real-time air Fingerprinting Technology) demonstrator project in the region. RAFT innovates with industry to adopt technology and generate joint IP to better exploit commercial opportunities. RAFT helps companies from all sectors develop new applications and products to follow in real time the emissions of volatile organic compounds and gases such as automotive emissions, and breath analysis.

ScioniX

Scionix Ltd is a Joint Venture between The University of Leicester and Genacys Ltd (subsidiary of Whyte Group Ltd) . The company was set-up in 1999 to commercialise the industrial use of a novel class of solvent systems.

East Midlands Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications

Part of The Satellite Applications Catapult‘s vision is to support industry and the science base across the UK to accelerate the growth of satellite applications to contribute to capturing a 10% share of the 400bn global space market predicted by 2030.