The Department of Chemistry: Bloemfontein Campus teaches approximately 700 undergraduate students and does research in all four classic divisions of Chemistry: Analytical, Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. The postgraduate students in the department include approximately 11 Honours, 32 MSc, and 28 PhD students, as well as 8 postdoctoral associates from as far as India, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Spain and Cameroon. The commitment and enthusiasm of chemistry’s personnel and students were clearly demonstrated by our 2022 research outputs, as manifested by the 97 articles published in national and international accredited journals and 65 presentations made at local and international conferences; 6 PhD, 10 MSc (5 of which obtained their degrees Cum Laude) and 11 Honours students graduated from the department. Our Crystallographic Laboratory is recently underwent a multi-million rand upgrade with the installation of the most advanced single crystal X-ray diffractometer installed in South Africa.

Research areas and groups in the department

• Advanced NMR Techniques
• Analytical Method Development & Validation
• Bioactivity & Toxicity in Plant Extracts
• Catalysis in Organic Chemistry
• Chromic & Charge Transfer Chemistry
• Computational Homogeneous Catalysis
• Computational Material Science and Heterogeneous catalysis
• Electrochemistry
• Heterogeneous Catalysis
• Heterogeneous & Electrocatalysis
• Hydrometallurgy
• Industrial Process Chemistry
• Ligand Influence on Reactivity in Organometallic Complexes
• Medical Chemistry
• Metalorganic Frameworks
• Metallocenes
• Metals & Medicine
• Nanochemistry
• Natural Product Isolation & Synthesis
• Organometallic & Polymer Chemistry with Possible Antineoplastic Characteristics
• Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines
• Reaction Kinetics & Mechanistic Studies in Radiopharmaceutical Agents
• Reaction Mechanisms in Radiopharmacy, Homogeneous Catalysis and Green Chemistry
• Structure / Reactivity Relationships in Coordination Chemistry
• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Thermal Analysis
• X-Ray Crystallography
  

Research equipment available in the department includes

• High-performance computing centre
• 400, and 600 MHz NMR spectrometers
• Solid-state NMR spectrometer
• Single-crystal and powder X-ray diffractometers
• Inductive coupled-plasma (ICP-OES & IPC-MS) spectrometers
• DSC and TGA equipment
• Gas (GC & GC-MS) and high-performance liquid (HPLC) chromatography
• Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionisation (MALDI-TOF)
• Electrochemistry (CV, SW, and LSV)
• High-pressure and industrial/research microwave reactors

Principal researchers

• Prof Vladimir Azov
• Dr Susan Bonnet
• Dr Alice Brink
• Prof Jeanet Conradie
• Prof Lizette Erasmus
• Dr Dumisani Kama
• Dr Ernie Langner
• Dr Charlene Marais
  
• Dr Eleanor Müller
• Prof Lyudmila Moskaleva
• Litheko Nkabiti
• Prof Walter Purcell
• Prof André Roodt
• Dr Marietjie Schutte-Smith
• Dr Rudi Swart
• Prof Jannie Swarts
  
• Dr Johan Venter
• Prof Karel von Eschwege
• Prof Deon Visser
• Dr Anke Wilhelm

Please contact us if you are interested in research or a career in Chemistry. South Africa needs scientists to unlock our mineral wealth and to create jobs.