Practical Chemistry and Key Skills

Module code: CH2204

In your first year at Leicester, you would have made a massive step-up in your practical chemistry abilities. You would have gone from small-scale practicals during your time at school or college to a university lab environment, and got to grips with new equipment, different chemicals, new terminology, more safety procedures and longer experiments amongst others. In this module, you'll build upon the abilities gained during your first year and continue to develop your practical chemistry skills.

In addition, this module will enable you to develop key skills that will help you during your professional career. The ability to effectively communicate chemistry and your work to a range of different audiences, both scientific and non-scientific, will be vital when seeking jobs or research opportunities, amongst others.

Topics covered

• Performing purification, analytical and computational practical procedures safely and following good chemistry laboratory practice
• Performing a range of analytical and spectroscopic techniques
• Thermodynamic, kinetic and spectroscopic properties of systems, solutions and reactions and potential errors in these techniques
• Preparing and purifying a variety of organic and inorganic compounds using single or multi-step synthetic procedures, and characterising and identifying the products from these syntheses
• The accurate observation and recording of experimental details and results
• Identifying, researching and communicating scientific concepts of interest to a defined target audience
• The role of chemistry in the sustainable energy sector
• Creating, reviewing and editing written content for a range of scientific audiences (e.g. journal articles) and employers (e.g. CVs, application letters)
• Reflecting on your own skills, identifying areas of strength and weakness