Sixth Form students contribute to published chemistry research

A group of our Sixth Form students took part in an advanced chemistry research project for the synthesis and structure determination of new polar materials, in collaboration with the University of Kent. Working alongside university researchers, they learned to grow transition metal salt crystals with an amine/acid, carefully investigating the conditions that influence effective methods of crystal formation.

Students collected both quantitative and qualitative data, which was later analysed using X-ray diffraction at the university. In an incredible outcome, one of the crystal structures they produced turned out to be a new, previously unreported structure of dihydrochloride metformin salt.

This discovery was so significant that it was included in a research article by the University of Kent’s Materials for Energy and Electronics (MEE) group and published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s CrystalEngComm journal.

We are immensely proud of our students for contributing to real scientific research at such a high level, many of whom have since continued their journey in STEM at university, and thankful to the university for their support with our students.

Ms Shepherd

Read the published article here: Analysis of a new hydrochloride salt of the common pharmaceutical metformin - CrystEngComm (RSC Publishing) DOI:10.1039/D5CE00711A