Course List

This course provides comprehensive coverage on food safety, food regulations and analytical approaches to dealing with nutrients, additives such as colouring matter and preservatives, contaminants such as toxic metals, trace residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs, and food deterioration. The quality assurance and accreditation requirements for food analysis will be discussed in detail.

Forensic sciences form a vital part of a modern judiciary system. Chemical examinations have been used extensively in exhibit identification and comparison, which in turn provide valuable information for the court to form its judgement. This course will introduce analytical methods commonly used by forensic scientists and show students how to apply their chemical knowledge in exhibit examinations to generate information of evidential value to assist law enforcement agencies to find out the truth of cases encountered.

This course aims to provide coverage of environmental pollutants and the analytical methodologies for use in environmental protection which includes environmental monitoring, incident investigation, preventive measures and regulatory compliance. The course will also discuss the quality assurance and requirements for accreditation of relevant analytical methods.

The course will cover the fundamentals of spectroscopy and various analytical spectroscopic techniques for use in common testing laboratories. These spectroscopic techniques include infrared spectrometry, flame and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry, plasma atomic emission spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Selected applications of analytical spectrometry will be discussed in details.

This course intends to provide an in-depth knowledge on the advanced chromatographic and mass spectrometric methods for characterization of different materials, including synthetic (such as drugs and polymers) and naturally available molecules (such as proteins and DNAs). This course will also discuss the various modes of on-line separation and identification techniques involving both chromatography and mass spectrometry methods.

Under the supervision of a supervisor, the postgraduate will undertake research activities on a special topic independently and will submit a thesis to be examined by a thesis committee.

This optional course aims to provide an opportunity for individuals to undertake a research project relevant to the accreditation chemistry, such as certification of reference materials or measuring devices; or experimental evaluation of measurement uncertainty. The research work will be conducted on Saturdays of the term time. Students with free time on Saturdays are encouraged to take this course and to acquire practical experience.

This course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the unique environmental, health and safety issues that arise in chemical laboratory, including local legislations for environmental, health and safety in workplace, standard practices for chemical handling, hazardous identification and risk assessment to the exposure of chemicals, use and maintenance of safety and personal protection equipment, disposal of chemical waste. Particular emphasis is also given to the establishing and implementing environmental, and health and safety management system in laboratory according to International Standards such as ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.

Comparability of chemical measurements and their traceability are the essential elements in establishing mutual recognition of analytical results and thereby providing a foundation for global agreements related to international trade, commerce and regulatory issues. This course aims to provide an in-depth coverage of the scientific basis for comparability of chemical measurements and their traceability. This includes the use of inter-laboratory comparison and certified reference materials.

This course aims to provide students with the essential knowledge of national and international standards as well as regulatory requirements in major markets for chemical testing of consumer products such as toys and children products, textiles and garments, cosmetics, food containers, etc. Practical consideration when conducting method validation and setting quality control plan for the testing will also be discussed.

This course provides a comprehensive coverage of qualitative and quantitative analytical methods of materials derived from different industries. Topics include basic science and analytic techniques for testing different construction and building materials such as cement, concrete, and reinforcement bar.

This course will cover the testing methodologies and their applications in quality control and regulatory compliance of pharmaceutical products (raw materials and finished products). The quality assurance guidelines and accreditation requirements of relevant chemical test methods will also be discussed.

The course aims to provide an overview of water treatment processes and technologies together with associated chemistry, application of sampling and analytical methodologies for process and water quality control, scope and significance of different testing regimes and investigation of water quality issues. The course will also discuss quality assurance and the requirement for accreditation of relevant testing methods.

This course provides a comprehensive coverage of analytical methods used for characterization of surface finishing and coatings on different substrate materials used in various types of industrial and commercial products. Topics include basic science and analytic techniques for various type of surface finishing technology, such as electroplating, vacuum deposition, anodizing and coatings, etc.