Facilities

Teaching Laboratories

Our Department has five specially designed teaching laboratories, occupying a total area of more than 1000 sq. metres. Four of the laboratories are dedicated to the undergraduate teaching in the four major areas of practical chemistry, namely Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry. General Chemistry Laboratory is designed to provide basic training for potential students majoring in Chemistry to prepare for advanced laboratory courses.  The infrastructures of and the equipment installed in the laboratories are tailored to the nature of the experiments involved.

To provide safe and comfortable working environments for students, the teaching laboratories are spacious and built with good ventilation systems and fumehoods as well as other safety facilities such as eye-washers, fire extinguishers, and the recently installed sprinkling system.

Each of our teaching laboratories is equipped with an array of state-of-the-art equipments for undergraduate teaching. Students can also have the opportunities to use sophisticated research-grade instruments in advanced experiments in their laboratory courses. These enable our students to have a broad exposure to modern chemical instrumentation in their formative years.

The Analytical Chemistry Laboratory is equipped with a variety of advanced analytical instruments for providing training in modern analytical techniques.Partial list of the major instruments:
 
  1. Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) System
    For sample separation by GC followed by in-situ analysis by MS
  2. High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC)
    For analysis of organic species in various samples
  3. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS)
    For analysis of metals by atomic absorption
  4. Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP)-Optical Emission Spectrometer
    For analysis of elements by ICP technique and optical emission detection
  5. Ion Chromatograph (IC)
    For analysis of cations and anions in samples using ion-exchange techniques
  6. UV-visible Spectrophotometer
    For spectroscopic studies of samples in the UV and visible ranges (200-800 nm)
  7. Mid-IR Spectrometer
    For spectroscopic studies of samples in the m id-IR range (400-4000 cm-1)
The Inorganic Chemistry laboratory is equipped with the general ventilation system and fume-hoods for the inorganic synthetic work. It is also equipped with a number of vacuum lines and a dry-box system for the handling of air-sensitive compounds. Advanced instruments are also available for the study of inorganic compounds.Partial list of the major instruments:
 
  • UV-visible Spectrophotometer
    For characterization of inorganic samples in the UV and visible ranges (200-800 nm)
  • Mid-IR to Far-IR Spectrometer
    For characterization of inorganic samples in the mid-IR to far-IR range (40-4000 cm-1)
  • Magnetic Susceptibility Balance
    For study of magnetic properties of inorganic compounds
  • Microwave Labstation
    For microwave-enhanced inorganic syntheses
  • Polarimeter 
    For study of chiral molecules
By considering the frequent handling of volatile organic compounds in practical organic chemistry courses, we took a number of measures to keep the indoor organic vapour level to a minimum for the sake of students’ health. The Organic Chemistry Laboratory is spacious and equipped with 6 newly installed fume cupboards. In addition, a ventilation system is installed for every laboratory bench to provide an exhaust port for each working position. The laboratory is equipped with a wide variety of advanced instruments for undergraduate teaching. The laboratory is also equipped with a rich collection of commonly used laboratory equipment such as rotatory evaporators, melting-point apparatus and centralised vacuum systems.Partial list of the major instruments:
 
  1. Diode Array UV-visible Spectrophotometer
    For study and characterization of organic samples in the UV and visible ranges (200-800 nm) and study of reaction kinetics.
  2. Mid-IR Spectrometer
    For study and characterization of organic compounds in the mid-IR range (400-4000 cm-1)
  3. Polarimeter
    For measuring the optical rotation of chiral compounds
  4. Gas Chromatograph (with Chiral GC Columns)
    For chromatographic analysis of volatile organic mixtures and determination of the optical purity of volatile chiral organic samples.
  5. High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (with Chiral HPLC Columns) 
    For chromatographic analysis of organic mixtures and determination of the optical purity of chiral organic samples.
The Physical Chemistry Laboratory is equipped with both commercial and home-built instruments for practical works in various fields of physical chemistry such as thermochemistry, equilibrium, kinetics, and spectroscopy. Most of the instruments are designed for specific purposes, e.g., bomb-calorimeter for measurement of heat of combustion. In some cases, however, advanced equipment of general-purpose are also employed, e.g., Raman and IR spectrometers are used for the elucidation of molecular structure. Partial list of the major instruments: 
 
  1. UV-visible Spectrophotometer
    For spectroscopic studies of the electronic structures of molecules in the UV and visible ranges (200-800 nm)
  2. Mid-IR Spectrometer
    For vibrational spectroscopic studies in the mid-IR range (400-4000 cm-1)
  3. Raman Spectrometer
    For study of molecular structure
  4. Bomb-Calorimeter 
    For measurement of heat of combustion of solid and liquid samples

Research Laboratories

A well-ventilated laboratory with sprinkling system installed is allocated for each research group. Each research laboratory is equipped with facilities and instruments suiting for the nature of the research work conducted therein.

To cope with the rapid development of the various physical methods employed in research and undergraduate teaching, the Department of Chemistry has equipped itself with a wide range of state-of-the-art scientific instruments. Besides supporting our own teaching and research, these instruments are also used to provide analysis services to the other departments in the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as the other local institutions. Listed below are some of the major equipment:
 
  1. Bruker AVANCE III 400 NMR Spectrometer
  2. Bruker AVANCE III HD 500 NMR Spectrometer
  3. Bruker D8 Venture X‐Ray Diffractometer
  4. Bruker APEX II X‐Ray Diffractometer
  5. Bruker EMX‐EPR Spectrometer
  6. Bruker Autoflex speed MALDI‐TOF Mass Spectrometer
  7. Bruker SolariX 9.4T ICR Mass Spectrometer (Faculty of Science)
  8. Thermo Finnigan MAT95XL Magnetic Sector Mass Spectrometer
  9. Thermo Q Exactive Focus Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer
  10. Agilent 7900 Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer
  11. ALV5000 Laser Instrument
  12. Coulter Laser Instrument
  13. Computer Clusters
Our Department has equipped itself with a number of fundamental but indispensable scientific instruments for teaching and research. They provide a variety of important characterization techniques in exploring the world of chemistry. Given below is a partial list of these instruments:
 
  1. Cary 1E UV‐Visible Spectrophotometer
  2. Hitachi F‐4500 Fluorescence Spectrophotometer
  3. Hitachi F‐7000 Fluorescence Spectrophotometer
  4. Horiba Fluoromax Spectrofluorometer
  5. Shimadzu UV3600 Plus UV‐VIS‐NIR Spectrophotometer
  6. Thermo Nicolet iS10 mid‐FTIR spectrometer
  7. Rudolph Autopol II Polarimeter
  8. Metrohm 792 basic Ion Chromatograph
  9. Mettler Toledo DSC3 Differential Scanning Calorimeter
  10. PAR 263A Electrochemical Station
  11. STUART SMP40 Automatic Melting Point Apparatus
  12. Electrothermal 9100 melting point measuring instrument
  13. Labconco Freezone 6 Freeze Dry System
NMR guide: A web page written to provide resource for NMR users in the department. (CUHK VPN connection required)
 
MS guide: This webpage outlines the MS service available for department users. It also provides guideline on sample submission and MS measurement. (CUHK VPN connection required)

Glass Blowing Workshop

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