Chemistry
The School of Chemistry was the first and one of the largest in Australia with over 2500 undergraduate and over 100 graduate students. The diversity of research interests, as well as talented teaching staff and supervisors, place the School at the forefront of development and research. The School published 234 research papers and book chapters in 2008 and was awarded $14.2 million in total research funding.
University of Sydney Advantage
The School of Chemistry has long had a well-deserved international reputation for excellence in research and teaching. It is consistently placed at or near the top of chemistry departments in Australia. Postgraduate research training is intimately linked with research activities. The School has strong collaborative links with industry mainly through the Advanced Catalysis for Sustainability Lab and the Key Centre for Polymer Colloids.
Facilities
The School is one of the best equipped for chemical research in Australia and has specialised equipment, such as: gas chromatographs, high pressure liquid chromatographs, ultrasonic equipment, cryogenic spectrophotometers, Matec electroacoustic analyser (1 MHz), electrochemical instrumentation, electrophoresis, moving boundary and particle apparatus, thermal analysis instrumentation, including Hiden-Isochema IGA, atomic absorption spectrometers, centrifuge equipment and single crystal and powder x-ray diffractometers.
Spectrometric facilities include infrared and UV/Visible, kinetic, laser Raman, Fourier transform IR (Bruker IFS 66V and RFS100) and Raman (Renishaw 2000) spectrometers, stopped flow CD absorption and emission spectrometer (applied photophysics) laser lightscattering apparatus, mass spectrometers, NMR spectrometers (DDX-400, DRX-400, PDX-300, PDX-200 and AMX-600), EPR Spectrometers, optical rotation and dispersion instruments, rheometers and circular and linear dichroism spectropolarimeter.
Areas of Research
The School of Chemistry’s areas of research include, but are not limited to:
Biological and medicinal chemistry
- design and pharmacology of new drugs
- design and synthesis of improved drugs, enzyme mimics, pesticides and herbicides
- drug-DNA and drug-protein interactions
- biophysical chemistry including artificial light harvesting systems
- environmental chemistry
Computational and theoretical chemistry
- quantum chemistry of organic molecules, biomolecules and metal complexes
- statistical mechanics
- molecular modelling
- molecular electronics
- polymer and colloid chemistry
- colloid and surface chemistry
- polymerisation chemistry
- polymer colloids in food science
- artificial polymer colloids
- phospholipids and surfactants
Reaction dynamics and kinetics
- molecular dynamics
- chemical kinetics and reactions mechanisms
- laser spectroscopy and the kinetics of very fast reactions
Spectroscopy and structural analysis
- NMR spectroscopy
- vibrational spectroscopy of inorganic and biological systems
- surface analysis and surface spectroscopy
- solid state chemistry
Supramolecular chemistry
- host-guest interactions
- molecular engineering
- biosensors
- metal ion and small molecular recognition
- design and synthesis of new materials
- crystal engineering
- porphyrin based molecular wires
Synthesis, catalysis and materials
- organometallic chemistry
- synthetic organic chemistry
- asymmetric catalysis
- polymerisation catalysts
- amino acid and peptide chemistry
- chemistry at very high pressures
- combustion and fuel chemistry
Academic Programs offered
- Honours
- Graduate Diploma in Science (GradDipSc)
- Master of Science (MSc)
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)