College of Chemistry was founded in April 1995, then became an entity in July 2000 on the basis of Department of Chemistry, Institute of Elemento-organic Chemistry, Institute of Polymer Science, Institute of Applied Chemistry, National Engineering Research Center of Pesticide(Tianjin), Institute of New Energy Storage Material and Center Laboratory of Nankai.

Department of Chemistry was founded by Professor Zongyue Qiu in 1921. It is considered to be one of the earliest chemistry departments in China. Institute of Elemento-organic Chemistry was founded in 1962 and the Institute of Polymer Science, the Institute of Applied Chemistry, the Institute of New Energy Storage Material and the Center Laboratory of Nankai were successively founded in the 1980s and 1990s.

So far, College of Chemistry has two departments (namely Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical Biology), three institutes (Research Institute of Elemento-organic Chemistry, Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Institute of Applied Chemistry), as well as two research centers (Research center of Analytical Science and National Engineering Research Center of Pesticide(Tianjin)).

Chemical discipline of Nankai University has basically formed a relatively stable discipline layout and research directions. The chemical discipline is geared to the needs of both the international academic frontiers and the national development strategies. After a long period of academic accumulations, continuous optimization of scientific layout, discipline construction strengthening, and the development of burgeoning interdisciplines, College of Chemistry runs two Ph.D. programs, one for Chemistry (the first-level national key discipline) and the other for Pesticide Science (the second-level national key discipline). There are many scientific research and teaching platforms, including Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering(Tianjin), State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, the National Engineering Research Center of Pesticide(Tianjin), the Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials (Ministry of Education), the Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and Efficient Storage Engineering Research Center (Ministry of Education), is not only one of the earliest "National Basic Scientific Research and Teaching Personnel Training Base (Chemical)". At present, College of Chemistry of Nankai University has become leading national bases for research and education in chemistry.

Currently, Nankai chemistry and related disciplines have a strong faculty of 363 members, including 7 academicians of Chinese Academy of Science （including 3 double-hired academicians）, 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 9 leading talents of Ministry of Education, 23 Distinguished Young Scholars named by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2 Innovative Research Group of National Science Foundation and 2 Innovative Teams of Ministry of Education. At present, Nankai chemistry and related disciplines have 1129 undergraduates, 678 master-level graduate students and 558 PhD-level graduate students.