The Southampton Electrochemistry Group has a leading international reputation for both research and education. The group is spread across Chemistry in the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment. Research spans the breadth of modern electrochemistry from fundamental studies of electrode surfaces and reactions through to applications in sensors, batteries, and fuel cells. The group has been active in education in Electrochemistry for over 40 years, hosting an annual summer school attended by 20 to 40 delegates per year from across the world.
This taught MSc builds upon our international reputation for excellence in research and education in Electrochemistry by offering an advanced, postgraduate education in Electrochemistry and Battery Technologies from the fundamental principles through to applications in energy storage, energy conversion and Electrochemical Engineering. The programme provides opportunities for you to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes in these areas..
The MSc Electrochemistry and Battery Technologies programme aims to:
• to instil an enthusiasm for electrochemistry and battery science, an appreciation of their applications in different contexts and to involve you in an intellectually stimulating and satisfying experience of learning and studying;
• to establish an appreciation of the importance and sustainability of the chemical sciences in an industrial, academic, economic, environmental and social context;
• to develop, through an education in chemistry, a range of appropriate generic skills, of value in chemical and non-chemical employment;
• to extend your comprehension of key chemical concepts as applied to Electrochemistry and battery processes and so provide you with an in-depth understanding of this specialised area of chemistry;
• to provide you with the ability to plan and carry out experiments independently and assess the significance of outcomes;
• to develop your ability to adapt and apply methodology to the solution of unfamiliar types of problems;
• to instil a critical awareness of advances at the forefront of Electrochemistry and Battery Technologies;
Employability is about more than just getting a job. We believe in helping our students gain the necessary experience for a future career, along with the skills to identify opportunities and make the most of them. It is reassuring to know that Chemistry degrees are third only behind Medicine and Dentistry as the degree which offers the highest financial return over the term of the graduate's career, but the rewards of a Chemistry degree lie at a deeper personal level and not just in terms of financial return.
During your year here you will have the opportunity to broaden your options by meeting employers, getting involved in volunteering activities, work placements and much more.
A significant proportion of our graduates decide to go into research by taking a PhD qualification, most of them staying in Southampton. But careers in industry and commerce are available even in the toughest economic times.
There are also research and teaching opportunities and the options to branch out into other fields such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, even finance, and the law and science journalism. This is because chemistry gives you the confidence to take on so many varied challenges in life.
With a Chemistry degree from the University of Southampton your career path will be limited only by the level of your commitment and determination
This masters in chemistry by research is a one year course beginning in October each year and is intended for participants with high quality first degrees in chemistry or a closely related subject.
Would you like to carry out an extensive piece of research whilst developing your theoretical skills? Our most research-intensive MSc programme includes a year-long research project embedded into one of our leading research groups and with access to our state of the art facilities.
Theory modules can be selected from topics in synthesis, advanced structural, analytical and spectroscopic techniques, materials chemistry, modelling, biological and medicinal chemistry, and electrochemistry.
You can specialise in a research area of your choice, within one of our main six research groups:
This programme provides training in chemical research and involves both lecture based units and a one year research project that constitutes 66 per cent of the assessment. In addition to units to enhance knowledge in chemistry, participants are offered training with regard to safety in the laboratory and to improve their professional skills, such as data analysis and presentation and oral presentations for example.
View the programme specification document for this course
This one-year taught programme offers the opportunity to study Chemistry at an advanced level, covering both the traditional core areas of chemistry, as well as more specialist courses aligned to the research groupings of the department. The course provides opportunities for you to develop and demonstrate advanced knowledge, understanding, and practical/research skills.
Would you like to upgrade your bachelor’s degree to a master’s and gain access to a chemistry career in industry or research? Join the MSc Chemistry and develop your lab and theoretical skills. Specialise in inorganic and materials, organic or physical chemistry, or maintain a broad portfolio, for a more detailed description of the available pathways, click the Pathways tab. Courses are available in synthesis, advanced structural, analytical and spectroscopic techniques, materials chemistry, modelling, biological and medicinal chemistry, and electrochemistry.
The MSc Chemistry course combines the opportunity for students to take modules from a wide range of cutting-edge fields in chemistry with sessions on practical, technical skills, and scientific writing, communication and presentation and a three month summer project supervised by one of Southampton’s expert academics. The course aims to:
Find out more about the course visit the programme specification
A Chemistry masters degree will give students valuable insight into postgraduate research skills. Independent project work will support students to develop transferable skills in areas such as time management, communication and presentation skills that are key for career success in a wide range of areas such as industry, analysis, policymaking and scientific communication. Completing an MSc qualification will help individuals tackle the challenges of an advanced research degree at PhD level and prepare them for a career in academia.
The following information summarises the typical pathways offered when choosing the MSc Chemistry degree programme:
Organic Chemistry
This area focuses on synthetic organic chemistry, total synthesis, synthetic methodology, reaction mechanism, organocatalysis, organofluorine chemistry, photochemistry and carbohydrate chemistry, both towards the synthesis of bioactive compounds and organic materials, and includes the study of organic reactions under flow conditions. This pathway offers the opportunity to specialise in the following areas
This pathway consists of advanced postgraduate courses in synthetic reaction mechanisms and is best suited to students who already have a thorough BSc level grounding in aspects of nomenclature, stereochemistry, reaction mechanisms.
Inorganic chemistry and materials
This area focuses on the synthesis of functional inorganic, solid-state and supramolecular materials and assemblies to address key challenges in energy, sustainability, healthcare and diagnostics and the deposition of nanostructured materials. This pathway will give you the opportunity to specialise in the following areas
This pathway is best suited to students who already have a thorough BSc level grounding in the fundamentals and applications of inorganic chemisry.
Physical chemistry
This pathway is best suited to students who already have a thorough BSc level grounding in the fundamentals and applications of inorganic chemistry. This area covers a wide range of fundamental and applied topics. This pathway will give you the opportunity to specialise in the following areas
This pathway is best suited to students who already have a thorough BSc level grounding in the fundamentals and applications of physical chemistry, in particular quantum chemistry, spectroscopy, thermodynamics and kinetics
General chemistry
You can choose to further your knowledge across a blend of advanced courses from organic, inorganic and/or physical chemistry (any combination). This pathway is suited to those wishing to develop an interdisciplinary expertise. If you choose this pathway you should already have a sound BSc-level grounding in the areas of chemistry in which you intend to choose modules (see other boxes).
Chemistry research at Swansea University is vibrant and covers a wide range of research areas and interests, and will be growing at a fast pace over the next 2-3 years. It is focused on 4 themes: Energy, Health, New and Advanced Molecules and Materials, and Water and the Environment. These research initiatives transcend the traditional discipline boundaries, integrate the core areas of inorganic, organic, physical and analytical chemistries and intersect with other scientific disciplines, engineering and medicine.
The new Department of Chemistry has excellent, purpose-built modern laboratories and has access to a diverse type of laboratories research infrastructures to develop its research. For example, high-quality, high-impact chemistry research is already taking place in World Class Centres based in Swansea such as The Centre for NanoHealth, The Institute of Mass Spectrometry, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Energy Safety Research Institute, Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre, The Centre for Water Advanced Technologies and Environmental Research and The Materials Research Centre. The integration of the new Chemistry Department with Engineering, the Medical School and other departments in the College of Science provides an environment of research excellence and allows our chemistry students and research staff to invent, innovate and develop products in a way that is best suited to research in the 21st century and the need to generate disruptive, step-change advances with impact on current global challenges.
Energy: One of the key areas where advances in chemistry will be needed is in providing solutions to the global energy challenge. Chemistry research in Swansea University is participating in fundamental and applied research initiatives focused on:
Health: Chemistry research provides new routes to more effective, cheaper and less toxic therapies and to non-invasive disease detection and diagnosis tools – a requirement to transform the entire landscape of drug discovery, development and healthcare, which is unaffordable and needs to benefit more patients. The chemistry research laboratories for this theme are adjacent to Swansea Medical School – which ranked 1st in the UK for research environment, and 2nd for overall research quality in the REF 2014.
Current chemistry research includes:
New and Advanced Molecules and Materials: There is major interest in synthesing, designing and controllling molecular and macromolecular assemblies at multiple length scales. In Swansea this research involves use of:
Water and the Environment: Chemistry at Swansea university has a strong profile in the development of analytical tools for measuring environmental impact, environmental impact assessment of polymer-based materials through their lifetime (including the effects of recycling and biopolymers), technologies for the efficient removal of environmentally harmful materials (and thus reduced emissions per output of discharge), membrane technologies and new methodologies for desalination, and for dewatering and killing pathogens for sanitation applications and the use of new molecules and materials for photocatalytic water splitting and development of self-propelled micro and nanomotor systems for environmental remediation. In collaboration with the Biocontrol and Natural Products (BANP) group in the Department of Biosciences, there is also growing research interest around the characterisation and application of natural products, in particular those derived from fungi and microalgae, to provide therapeutics and nutraceuticals and to act as agents for biocontrol and bioremediation.
Our new state-of-the-art teaching laboratories are being built as part of a multi-million pound investment to create a chemistry hub for the high quality Chemical Sciences research being carried out across the Colleges of Science, Engineering and Medicine.
A chemistry qualification opens the door to a wide range of careers options, both in and out of the lab. There are endless interesting and rewarding science-based jobs available – these can be in research, outdoors or in other industries you might not have thought of. Please visit the Royal Society of Chemistry website for details.
Find out more about the huge range of jobs in chemistry by exploring the job profiles on the Royal Society of Chemistry website (eg Cancer Researcher, Flavourist & Innovation Director, Chief Chemist, Sustainability Manager, Fragrance Chemist, Household Goods Senior Scientist, Analytical Scientist, and many more).
An international leader in research, the School of Chemistry offers an exciting programme aimed at students who wish to develop their chemistry research skills. During the course you’ll receive close support and guidance from one or more academic supervisors within the school. The research projects can be developed by you and your supervisors. You’ll join an active research group where you’ll receive training in advanced techniques, and use of state-of-the-art equipment.
Recent past projects include:
You will undertake an original research project worth 120- 180 credits. You’ll then study up to 60 credits of optional taught modules which will reflect our research areas. These currently include: Biological and Medicinal Chemistry, Green and Sustainable Chemistry, Materials, Molecular Bonding and Spectroscopy, and Synthesis and Catalysis.
We also work closely with colleagues in biomedical sciences, physics and engineering. This allows you flexibility to tailor your research to your individual interests.
The assessment of all modules are as set out in the specifications for each module. In regard to the thesis module, the maximum word length of the thesis is as follows:
The maximum word limits are all inclusive of appendices, footnotes, tables and bibliography.
Students are required to submit their thesis prior to the end of the period of registered study.
Discover more about our research. As a student at Nottingham, we’ll empower you to think big and provide the support so you can make your own contributions to the world of science.
Pursuing a research degree at the School of Chemistry could be one of the best experiences of your life.
In addition to gaining research skills, making friends, meeting eminent researchers and being part of the research community, a research degree will help you to develop invaluable transferable skills which you can apply to academic life or a variety of professions outside of academia.
The Chemistry/Biology Interface
This is a broad area, with particular strengths in the areas of protein structure and function, mechanistic enzymology, proteomics, peptide and protein synthesis, protein folding, recombinant and synthetic DNA methodology, biologically targeted synthesis and the application of high throughput and combinatorial approaches. We also focus on biophysical chemistry, the development and application of physicochemical techniques to biological systems. This includes mass spectrometry, advanced spectroscopy and microscopy, as applied to proteins, enzymes, DNA, membranes and biosensors.
Experimental & Theoretical Chemical Physics
This is the fundamental study of molecular properties and processes. Areas of expertise include probing molecular structure in the gas phase, clusters and nanoparticles, the development and application of physicochemical techniques such as mass spectoscropy to molecular systems and the EaStCHEM surface science group, who study complex molecules on surfaces, probing the structure property-relationships employed in heterogeneous catalysis. A major feature is in Silico Scotland, a world-class research computing facility.
Synthesis
This research area encompasses the synthesis and characterisation of organic and inorganic compounds, including those with application in homogeneous catalysis, nanotechnology, coordination chemistry, ligand design and supramolecular chemistry, asymmetric catalysis, heterocyclic chemistry and the development of synthetic methods and strategies leading to the synthesis of biologically important molecules (including drug discovery). The development of innovative synthetic and characterisation methodologies (particularly in structural chemistry) is a key feature, and we specialise in structural chemistry at extremely high pressures.
Materials Chemistry
The EaStCHEM Materials group is one of the largest in the UK. Areas of strength include the design, synthesis and characterisation of functional (for example magnetic, superconducting and electronic) materials; strongly correlated electronic materials, battery and fuel cell materials and devices, porous solids, fundamental and applied electrochemistry polymer microarray technologies and technique development for materials and nanomaterials analysis.
Students attend regular research talks, visiting speaker symposia, an annual residential meeting in the Scottish Highlands, and lecture courses on specialised techniques and safety. Students are encouraged to participate in transferable skills and computing courses, public awareness of science activities, undergraduate teaching and to represent the School at national and international conferences.
Our facilities are among the best in the world, offering an outstanding range of capabilities. You’ll be working in recently refurbished laboratories that meet the highest possible standards, packed with state-of-the-art equipment for both analysis and synthesis.
For NMR in the solution and solid state, we have 10 spectrometers at field strengths from 200-800 MHz; mass spectrometry utilises EI, ESI, APCI, MALDI and FAB instrumentation, including LC and GC interfaces. New combinatorial chemistry laboratories, equipped with a modern fermentation unit, are available. We have excellent facilities for the synthesis and characterisation of bio-molecules, including advanced mass spectrometry and NMR stopped-flow spectrometers, EPR, HPLC, FPLC, AA.
World-class facilities are available for small molecule and macromolecular X-ray diffraction, utilising both single crystal and powder methods. Application of diffraction methods at high pressures is a particular strength, and we enjoy strong links to central facilities for neutron, muon and synchrotron science in the UK and further afield. We are one of the world's leading centres for gas-phase electron diffraction.
Also available are instruments for magnetic and electronic characterisation of materials (SQUID), electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), force-probe microscopy, high-resolution FTRaman and FT-IR, XPS and thermal analysis. We have also recently installed a new 1,000- tonne pressure chamber, to be used for the synthesis of materials at high pressures and temperatures. Fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy instruments are available within the COSMIC Centre. Dedicated computational infrastructure is available, and we benefit from close links with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.
