Research at the Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry developes new tools for the needs of drug development and diagnostics as well as new solutions for sensors, energy storage and energy transfer.

Chemistry is a very practical field of science, which helps finding solutions to many globally essential problems. The research carried out at the Department of Chemistry currently seeks answers to for example the following questions:

  • How to store and utilize Solar energy more efficiently?
  • Can drugs be targeted in the body by attaching chemical address tags in them?
  • Can the defense compounds of plants be used to slow down the climate change and also as anti-parasite drugs?
  • How to make the penetration of antiviral drugs into the desired parts of cells more efficient?
  • Is it possible to manufacture functional and biocompatible films for sensor, drug delivery, reaction and bio applications?
  • Why do all plants produce a different variety of defense compounds?
  • How to use bioinspire molecules and solvents in biodegradable electronics and environmentally friendly electrochemical applications? What is the physical basis of these processes?
  • How to convert carbon dioxide to fuel?
  • How to produce efficient energy storage materials?

Research groups

Bio-Organic Group

Chemistry Education Research Group

Detection Technology Group

Intelligent Materials Chemistry Group

Materials Chemistry Research Group

Natural Chemistry Research Group

Physical Chemistry Group

Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry Group

Smart Energy Materials group

Newest Publications

Direct oxidation of methane to methanol using copper phthalocyanines as precursors (2026)

Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Gallego-Villada, Luis A.; Pätsch, Sebastian; Mäki-Arvela, Päivi; Efimov, Alexander; Doronkin, Dmitry E.; Mazur, Michal; Lastusaari, Mika; Elvers, Benedict J.; Virtanen, Pasi; Kumar, Narendra; Tirri, Teija; Schulzke, Carola; Murzin, Dmitry Yu.
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)

Ion migration in perovskite solar cells (2026)

Nature Reviews Chemistry
Thiesbrummel, Jarla; Milić, Jovana V.; Deibel, Carsten; Garnett, Erik C.; Tao, Shuxia; Kirchartz, Thomas; Guerrero, Antonio; Cameron, Petra; Tress, Wolfgang; Saiful, Islam M.; Ehrler, Bruno
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal )

Pre- and postnatal maternal psychological distress and the metabolomic profile of human milk (2026)

Journal of Nutrition
Ryan, Niamh; Sundekilde, Ulrik Kramer; Dickens, Alex M.; Kalant, Henna-Maria; Leahy-Warren, Patricia; Philpott, Lloyd; Mulcahy, Helen; Lamichhane, Santosh; Isokääntä, Heidi; Perasto, Laura; Tarro, Saija; Karlsson, Hasse; Karlsson, Linnea; O’Mahony, Siobhain M.; Aatsinki, Anna-Katariina
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)
All publications
Keywords
Department of Chemistry
New technologies and digitalisation
Biodiversity and sustainability