Catalysis in Chemistry (F1110)

15 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

This module introduces you to catalysis, its industrial and environmental importance, and the main different classes – heterogeneous, homogeneous and enzymatic catalysis.

You’ll begin by looking at catalysis and green technologies, illustrating the very wide range of interesting and important applications of catalysis.

Heterogeneous catalysis is very important to the chemical industry. You’ll explore this through:

  • a consideration of surface chemistry
  • modern techniques for studying surfaces 
  • the study of important organic and inorganic solid catalysts, including the rapidly growing area of shape-selective catalysis.

Homogeneous catalysis is also an extremely important subject in synthesis and industrial chemistry. You’ll cover this in a series of lectures on important metal-catalysed processes.

You’ll also explore the important and growing areas of catalysis, such as enzymatic and asymmetric catalysis, for a range of important chemical reactions.

You’ll attend workshops and look at case studies based on important catalytic processes throughout the module.

Teaching

69%: Lecture
31%: Practical (Workshop)

Assessment

30%: Coursework (Essay)
70%: Examination (Unseen examination)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 32 hours of contact time and about 118 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.