Curriculum | Molecules & Organic Materials

During your Master’s in Chemical Science & Engineering (CSE), you will collect a total of 120 EC within two years. The specialisation in Molecules & Organic Materials (MOM) consists of six compulsory courses, the profile of your choice, elective courses, an internship and your final master’s assignment.

In addition, you can fill up your free space with elective courses that interest you, both in and outside of the Master’s in CSE. Choosing a Capita Selecta is also an option. This is a self-study course in which you explore a specific topic of your interest, supported by a researcher of the related research group.

European Credit Transfer System

Student workload at Dutch universities is expressed in EC, also named ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), which is widely used throughout the European Union. In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work.

Structure

Year 1

Numer of EC

Compulsory courses

32,5 EC

Profile
You choose one of the three profiles mentioned.

12,5 - 15 EC

Molecules & Materials for Health:

Systems Chemistry
Biotechnology
Smart Biomaterials
3D Bioprinting

Sustainable & Smart Molecules and Materials:

Sustainable Organic Chemistry
Electrochemistry: fundamentals and techniques
Advanced Organic Chemistry
Nanochemistry

Soft Matter:

Advanced Colloids and Interfaces
Soft Matter Physics
Experiments in Soft Matter

Elective courses
You can choose electives that are either related to the MOM-specialisation or courses from other specialisations or even other UT-master’s.

Elective courses should make up a total of 120 EC

Examples of electives:

Year 2
Internship & Job Orientation Project	20 EC	In the first quartile of your second year, you will do an internship as preparation for the professional field.
Master’s thesis	40 EC	You will finish your Master’s in CSE with your master’s thesis. You will complete this assignment at one of the research groups related to this specialisation.
Total EC	120 EC

or Skype with a student and gain first-hand experience!

Profiles

The specialisation Molecules & Organic Materials offers three different profiles:

Molecules & Materials for Health
Healthcare is full of different tests and treatments that requires specialised molecules and materials to diagnose or treat ailments in various conditions.
Sustainable & Smart Molecules and Materials
Smart’ molecules and materials change properties based on their environment and this way can be used. In this way they can be used as sensors or to create adaptable materials for increased sustainability.
Soft Matter
Soft matter merges chemistry and physics to study the principles and applications of materials such as gels, foams, biomaterials, polymers, and colloids.

Internship

In the second year of your Master’s, you will do an internship of approximately three months as preparation for the professional field. Within the specialisation in Molecular & Materials Engineering, there are many options open to you when it comes to choosing your internship.

A popular option is to complete your internship at a research group of a university or a renowned research institute, both in the Netherlands or abroad. For example, former students have gone to universities in Barcelona (Spain), Queensland (Australia), Aarhus (Denmark) or Hefei (China), or completed their internship at CERN in Switzerland or the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB). You could also choose to do your internship at a research & development department of a chemical company, such as ASML, AkzoNobel, Shell, Nestlé Cooperations, Cargill, Teijin Aramid, IBM or Lipocoat, to name a few examples.

Master's thesis

You will complete your Master’s in CSE with your master’s thesis. The choice of your graduation subject will be largely up to you and you can decide for yourself how fundamental or applied you want your research project to be. You could for example contribute to the research and development of materials and molecules for circularity, focus on the design of novel sensor technologies or develop coatings for various applications, from antibacterial coatings for medical applications to lubricious coating for wind turbines.

Whether you want to focus on bio-inspired and smart materials, lab-on-a-chip solutions, inorganic materials science, (bio)molecular nanofabrication or thin films, it is up to you! You will write your thesis under the supervision of a professor of one of the research groups. Under certain conditions, you could (partially) execute your research project at an external institution or organisation as well.

Your master’s thesis could involve investigating questions such as:

To successfully deliver therapeutics to the brain, carrier systems are needed. Single Chain Polymeric Nanoparticles are a promising nanocarrier. However, additional targeting is needed for brain entry. What kind of targeting is needed? And how can you coat such a nanocarrier?
How can we gain a better understanding of the chemistry and engineering of two-dimensional nanosheet membranes on top of porous ceramic supports for molecular-based separations under demanding conditions?
How can you construct polymer brushes that adhere to artificial cartilage to reduce friction? What kind of polymer brushes should be used? And what properties are required and how can you combine these properties in one layer (for biomedical application)?
What is the effect of strain and choice of substrate for rare-earth nickelate thin films which is shown to be superconductive? And how can you investigate this, focusing on one of the key challenges in the synthesis of the thin layer phase: the reduction step?

Research