Subdepartment of Fundamental Chemistry

The Department of Fundamental Chemistry is involved in the teaching process at all levels of the study programs of the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek, from undergraduate to postgraduate university studies.

At the undergraduate level, students acquire basic knowledge of general, inorganic, analytical and organic chemistry, inorder to be able to adopt further content of other courses of the study program. Within the mentioned course at the undergraduate study, students acquire a large part of their knowledge through practical work on laboratory exercises, which are performed in the laboratory of the Department of Applied Chemistry and Ecology.

The undergraduate and postgraduate basic knowledge is upgraded through the courses Isolation Techniques and Purification, Green Chemistry and Antioxidants in Food. These courses are aimed at acquiring knowledge about modern methods of isolation and purification of natural and synthetic organic compounds, more environmentally friendly methods of synthesis, which are in line with the principles of green chemistry. Furthermore, as part of the course Antioxidants in Food, students learn about the structural characteristics and mechanism of action of natural and synthetic antioxidants.

The scientific research work of the Department is focused on the synthesis of biologically active compounds of primarily heterocyclic organic compounds of derivatives of vitamins B6, B3, coumarin, rhodanine, quinazolinone. As part of the research, modern synthesis methods are applied and developed, which include microwave synthesis, ultrasonic synthesis, synthesis in deep eutectic solvents, mechanosynthesis.

Employees of the department are involved in the project Green Technology in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds, which is led by Assoc. dr.sc. Maja Molnar whose main goal is to develop methods by synthesizing various biologically active heterocyclic compounds using green technologies.  

Chairman:

Valentina Bušić, PhD, Assistant Professor