Alchemy lab

The alchemy lab can be used to upgrade your research items. It will take a number of items of a certain level and transform them into one item of a higher level, at the cost of some ionite (the cost varies depending on the specific type of the item).

The gallery below shows the alchemy lab at all different levels.

It is quite difficult to build and upgrade the alchemy lab, because each building level requires at least 1 alembic. This main source of alembics is by completing the abandoned laboratory map in your journal, which requires collecting map fragments. These can be found in Dominion chests, which can be found by completing the "abandoned outpost" expedition or by doing the Sabotage repeatable mission. Once you have collected all 20 fragments, then you can assemble the map and obtain an alembic (along with some research items) as a reward. You also get an alembic when you reach 175 stars in the Revival campaign, 75 stars in Overthrow, or 75 stars in Expulsion.

Once the building reaches its maximum level of 7, since at that point you won't need alembics any more, it can also be used to convert an alembic to a 24h research item for free.