Chemical Laboratories

We have two wet chemistry laboratories, equipped with electrochemical workstations. These workstations are capable of techniques such as:

  • corrosion measurement
  • low current detection
  • electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

We have combined these with Quartz Crystal Microbalance and a liquid-liquid extraction cell.

Our other facilities include:

  • Scanning electron microscopes
  • Energy dispersive X-ray analysis
  • UV-visible spectroscopy
  • Raman spectroscopy
  • X-ray fluorescence

Materials fabrication facilities include a sputter coater for thin layer deposition and photoinduced electroless deposition rigs.

The active laboratory includes a glove box and is capable of handling open sources of ionising radiation. You can discuss further with the Departmental Radiation Officer.

Equipment

Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)

NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter
The simultaneous thermal analyser NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter® allows the measurement of mass changes and thermal effects between -150°C and 2400°C.

Heat Exchanger Service Unit

Armfield HT30XC
Plate and Tubular interchangeable units designed to illustrate the principles and techniques of indirect heat transfer between fluid streams.

Basic Process Module

Armfield PCT40
A multi-function process control teaching system, capable of demonstrating level, flow, pressure and temperature control loops.

Filtration Unit

Armfield UOP12 Filtration Unit
The unit demonstrates the principles of batch filtration using a fully functional plate and frame filter system extremely important in the chemical, food and water industries. Flow and pressure rates are monitored relating to economic experimentation.

Water Cooling Tower

Armfield UOP6- MKII Water Cooling Tower
The Computer Controlled Water Cooling Tower comprises a cooling tower mounted on top of a heated water reservoir. As the water descends through the packing material it is fan-cooled, blowing air upwards through the tower. Energy and mass balances are obtained where the air flow, water flow, temperature, packing density, and operation can be investigated.

Chemical Tubular Reactor

Armfield CEXC Chemical Tubular Reactor Unit
The 20m long reactor coil is mounted in a clear acrylic vessel through which heating or cooling medium is circulated. The volume of the reactor coil is 0.4l. Two heat exchanger coils bring the reactants up to the reaction temperature separately before they are mixed to start the reaction, measurements of temperature, conductivity, reaction rate and residence time can be investigated.

Chemical Batch Reactor

Armfield CEXC Chemical Batch Reactor Unit
A small-scale batch reactor for use with the Chemical Reactors Service Unit designed to demonstrate both adiabatic and isothermal operation. The demonstration of temperature on reaction kinetics, rate equation, activation energy and temperature effects on exothermic reactions.

Mastersizer Hydro

Malvern Mastersizer Hydro MV
The laser diffraction particle size analyser delivers rapid, accurate particle size distributions for both wet and dry dispersions with the minimum of effort. Measuring over the nanometre to millimetre particle size ranges, it packs exceptional performance into the smallest of footprints.

UV-Visible Spectrophotometer

Thermo Scientific UV-Visible Spectrophotometer Evolution 220
Analysis of samples via absorption or transmittance in the ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy region used for quantitating analysis of different analytes within a solution.

Gas/Liquid Absorption Column

Armfield UOP7 MKII
Study of basic principles of the absorption of a gas into a liquid using a packed column including the determination of loading and flooding points, mass transfer coefficient and chemical and physical absorption.

Liquid/Liquid Extraction Unit

Armfield UOP5 MKII
Liquid/liquid extraction is an important operation in chemical engineering where the separation of one or more of the components from a liquid mixture is required. The investigation into the interaction of aqueous and organic flow phases and calculation of the mass transfer coefficient for the system.

Distillation Column

Armfield UOP3
Investigation of pressure drop across a column, column efficiency, temperature monitoring within the system. Samples are taken to measure different component such as refractive index.