Department of Applied Chemistry

The Department of Applied Chemistry was established in 1976 to play an important role in the further development of the industrial belt in the Greater Cochin area by providing scientific support and trained personnel to the industries and by acting as a catalyst for the starting of new industries. The Department has now grown and has emerged as one of the best centres in Chemistry in the state of Kerala and had been fortunate to produce the Bhatnagar Award Winner in Chemical Sciences (Dr. K.L. Sebastian, 1995). The department aims to transform itself into a Centre of Excellence for the development of Chemical Industries in the state by providing trained personnel, scientific support and other consultancy and analytical services to solve the problems of the existing industries. Research and development activities for the sake of industries are also conceived as a major goal of the Department.

The Department has more than 70 Ph.Ds, 300 research publications and a few monographs to its credit. The Department has been selected for the FIST programme of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Special Assistance Programme (SAP) of University Grants Commission. The department is also undertaking a number of projects and schemes sponsored by funding agencies like UGC, CSIR, DST, STEC and DRDO.

Major Analytical facilities in the department include UV–Vis Spectrophotometer, Gas Chromatographs, Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer, Surfacearea analyzer, FTIR, LCMS, Electrochemical work station and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer.

As an extension activity, the instrumental facilities are offered to industries and academic institutions. The Department undertakes consultancyservices for industrial/ R&D establishments etc. in an effort to find solutions to technical problems faced by them. The Department is conductingregular programmes in Science for school students.

The Department has International collaborations with National Technical University Singapore, KARD Scientific U.S.A., Limerick UniversityIreland, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland, Sultan Quaboos University Muscat, Bois State University U.S.A. and University Sains Malaysia.