Syllabus

IIT JAM Chemistry Syllabus

Physical Chemistry

Basic Mathematical Concepts: Functions; maxima and minima; integrals; ordinary differential equations; vectors and matrices; determinants; elementary statistics and probability theory.
 
Atomic and Molecular Structure: Fundamental particles; Bohr’s theory of hydrogen-like atom; wave-particle duality; uncertainty principle; Schrödinger’s wave equation; quantum numbers; shapes of orbitals; Hund’s rule and Pauli’s exclusion principle; electronic configuration of simple homonuclear diatomic molecules.
 
Theory of Gases: Equation of state for ideal and non-ideal (van der Waals) gases; Kinetic theory of gases; Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law; equipartition of energy.
 
Solid State: Crystals and crystal systems; X-rays; NaCl and KCl structures; close packing; atomic and ionic radii; radius ratio rules; lattice energy; Born-Haber cycle; isomorphism; heat capacity of solids.
 
Chemical Thermodynamics: Reversible and irreversible processes; first law and its application to ideal and nonideal gases; thermochemistry; second law; entropy and free energy; criteria for spontaneity.
 
Chemical and Phase Equilibria: Law of mass action; Kp, Kc, Kx and Kn; effect of temperature on K; ionic equilibria in solutions; pH and buffer solutions; hydrolysis; solubility product; phase equilibria–phase rule and its application to one-component and two-component systems; colligative properties.
 
Electrochemistry: Conductance and its applications; transport number; galvanic cells; EMF and free energy; concentration cells with and without transport; polarography; concentration cells with and without transport; Debey-Huckel-Onsagar theory of strong electrolytes.
 
Chemical Kinetics: Reactions of various order; Arrhenius equation; collision theory; transition state theory; chain reactions – normal and branched; enzyme kinetics; photochemical processes; catalysis.
 
Adsorption: Gibbs adsorption equation; adsorption isotherm; types of adsorption; surface area of adsorbents; surface films on liquids.
 
Spectroscopy: Beer-Lambert law; fundamental concepts of rotational, vibrational, electronic and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Organic Chemistry

Basic Concepts in Organic Chemistry and Stereochemistry: Electronic effects (resonance, inductive, hyperconjugation) and steric effects and its applications (acid/base property); optical isomerism in compounds with and without any stereocenters (allenes, biphenyls); conformation of acyclic systems (substituted ethane/n-propane/n-butane) and cyclic systems (mono- and di-substituted cyclohexanes).

Organic Reaction Mechanism and Synthetic Applications: Chemistry of reactive intermediates (carbocations, carbanions, free radicals, carbenes, nitrenes, benzynes etc.); Hofmann-Curtius-Lossen rearrangement, Wolff rearrangement, Simmons-Smith reaction, Reimer-Tiemann reaction, Michael reaction, Darzens reaction, Wittig reaction and McMurry reaction; Pinacol-pinacolone, Favorskii, benzilic acid rearrangement, dienone-phenol rearrangement, Baeyer-Villeger reaction; oxidation and reduction reactions in organic chemistry; organometallic reagents in organic synthesis (Grignard, organolithium and organocopper); Diels-Alder, electrocyclic and sigmatropic reactions; functional group inter-conversions and structural problems using chemical reactions.
 
Qualitative Organic Analysis: Identification of functional groups by chemical tests; elementary UV, IR and 1H NMR spectroscopic techniques as tools for structural elucidation.
 
Natural Products Chemistry: Chemistry of alkaloids, steroids, terpenes, carbohydrates, amino acids, peptides and nucleic acids.
 
Aromatic and Heterocyclic Chemistry: Monocyclic, bicyclic and tricyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and monocyclic compounds with one hetero atom: synthesis, reactivity and properties.

Inorganic Chemistry

Periodic Table: Periodic classification of elements and periodicity in properties; general methods of isolation and purification of elements.
 
Chemical Bonding and Shapes of Compounds: Types of bonding; VSEPR theory and shapes of molecules; hybridization; dipole moment; ionic solids; structure of NaCl, CsCl, diamond and graphite; lattice energy.
 
Main Group Elements (s and p blocks): General concepts on group relationships and gradation in properties; structure of electron deficient compounds involving main group elements.
 
Transition Metals (d block): Characteristics of 3d elements; oxide, hydroxide and salts of first row metals; coordination complexes: structure, isomerism, reaction mechanism and electronic spectra; VB, MO and Crystal Field theoretical approaches for structure, color and magnetic properties of metal complexes; organometallic compounds having ligands with back bonding capabilities such as metal carbonyls, carbenes, nitrosyls and metallocenes; homogenous catalysis.
 
Bioinorganic Chemistry: Essentials and trace elements of life; basic reactions in the biological systems and the role of metal ions, especially Fe2+, Fe3+, Cu2+ and Zn2+; structure and function of hemoglobin and myoglobin and carbonic anhydrase.
 
Instrumental Methods of Analysis: Basic principles; instrumentations and simple applications of conductometry, potentiometry and UV-vis spectrophotometry; analysis of water, air and soil samples.
 
Analytical Chemistry: Principles of qualitative and quantitative analysis; acid-base, oxidation-reduction and complexometric titrations using EDTA; precipitation reactions; use of indicators; use of organic reagents in inorganic analysis; radioactivity; nuclear reactions; applications of isotopes.

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CSIR NET Chemical Science Syllabus

Inorganic Chemistry

1. Chemical periodicit
2. Structure and bonding in homo- and heteronuclear molecules, including shapes of molecules (VSEPR Theory).
3. Concepts of acids and bases, Hard-Soft acid base concept, Non-aqueous solvents.
4. Main group elements and their compounds: Allotropy, synthesis, structure and bonding, industrial importance of the compounds.
5. Transition elements and coordination compounds: structure, bonding theories, spectral and magnetic properties, reaction mechanisms.
6. Inner transition elements: spectral and magnetic properties, redox chemistry, analytical applications.
7. Organometallic compounds: synthesis, bonding and structure, and reactivity. Organometallics in homogeneous catalysis.
8. Cages and metal clusters.
9. Analytical chemistry- separation, spectroscopic, electro- and thermoanalytical methods.
10. Bioinorganic chemistry: photosystems, porphyrins, metalloenzymes, oxygen transport, electron- transfer reactions; nitrogen fixation, metal complexes in medicine.
11. Characterisation of inorganic compounds by IR, Raman, NMR, EPR, Mössbauer, UV-vis, NQR, MS, electron spectroscopy and microscopic techniques.
12. Nuclear chemistry: nuclear reactions, fission and fusion, radio-analytical techniques and activation analysis.

Physical Chemistry

1. Basic principles of quantum mechanics: Postulates; operator algebra; exactly- solvable systems: particle-in-a-box, harmonic oscillator and the hydrogen atom, including shapes of atomic orbitals; orbital and spin angular momenta; tunneling.
2. Approximate methods of quantum mechanics: Variational principle; perturbation theory up to second order in energy; applications.
3. Atomic structure and spectroscopy; term symbols; many-electron systems and antisymmetry principle.
4. Chemical bonding in diatomics; elementary concepts of MO and VB theories; Huckel theory for conjugated π-electron systems.
5. Chemical applications of group theory; symmetry elements; point groups; character tables; selection rules.
6. Molecular spectroscopy: Rotational and vibrational spectra of diatomic molecules; electronic spectra; IR and Raman activities – selection rules; basic principles of magnetic resonance.
7. Chemical thermodynamics: Laws, state and path functions and their applications; thermodynamic description of various types of processes; Maxwell’s relations; spontaneity and equilibria; temperature and pressure dependence of thermodynamic quantities; Le Chatelier principle; elementary description of phase transitions; phase equilibria and phase rule; thermodynamics of ideal and non-ideal gases, and solutions.
8. Statistical thermodynamics: Boltzmann distribution; kinetic theory of gases; partition functions and their relation to thermodynamic quantities – calculations for model systems.
9. Electrochemistry: Nernst equation, redox systems, electrochemical cells; DebyeHuckel theory; electrolytic conductance – Kohlrausch’s law and its applications; ionic equilibria; conductometric and potentiometric titrations.
10. Chemical kinetics: Empirical rate laws and temperature dependence; complex reactions; steady state approximation; determination of reaction mechanisms; collision and transition state theories of rate constants; unimolecular reactions; enzyme kinetics; salt effects; homogeneous catalysis; photochemical reactions.
11. Colloids and surfaces: Stability and properties of colloids; isotherms and surface area; heterogeneous catalysis.
12. Solid state: Crystal structures; Bragg’s law and applications; band structure of solids.
13. Polymer chemistry: Molar masses; kinetics of polymerization.
14. Data analysis: Mean and standard deviation; absolute and relative errors; linear regression; covariance and correlation coefficient.

Organic Chemistry

1. IUPAC nomenclature of organic molecules including regio- and stereoisomers.
2. Principles of stereochemistry: Configurational and conformational isomerism in acyclic and cyclic compounds; stereogenicity, stereoselectivity, enantioselectivity, diastereoselectivity and asymmetric induction.
3. Aromaticity: Benzenoid and non-benzenoid compounds – generation and reactions.
4. Organic reactive intermediates: Generation, stability and reactivity of carbocations, carbanions, free radicals, carbenes, benzynes and nitrenes.
5. Organic reaction mechanisms involving addition, elimination and substitution reactions with electrophilic, nucleophilic or radical species. Determination of reaction pathways.
6. Common named reactions and rearrangements – applications in organic synthesis.
7. Organic transformations and reagents: Functional group interconversion including oxidations and reductions; common catalysts and reagents (organic, inorganic, organometallic and enzymatic). Chemo, regio and stereoselective transformations.
8. Concepts in organic synthesis: Retrosynthesis, disconnection, synthons, linear and convergent synthesis, umpolung of reactivity and protecting groups.
9. Asymmetric synthesis: Chiral auxiliaries, methods of asymmetric induction – substrate, reagent and catalyst controlled reactions; determination of enantiomeric and diastereomeric excess; enantio-discrimination. Resolution – optical and kinetic.
10. Pericyclic reactions – electrocyclisation, cycloaddition, sigmatropic rearrangements and other related concerted reactions. Principles and applications of photochemical reactions in organic chemistry.
11. Synthesis and reactivity of common heterocyclic compounds containing one or two heteroatoms (O, N, S).
12. Chemistry of natural products: Carbohydrates, proteins and peptides, fatty acids, nucleic acids, terpenes, steroids and alkaloids. Biogenesis of terpenoids and alkaloids.
13. Structure determination of organic compounds by IR, UV-Vis, 1H & 13C NMR and Mass spectroscopic techniques.

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GATE Chemistry Syllabus

Section 1: Physical Chemistry

Surfaces and Interfaces: Physisorption and chemisorption. Langmuir, Freundlich and BET isotherms. Surface catalysis: Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. Surface tension, viscosity. Self-assembly. Physical chemistry of colloids, micelles and macromolecules.

Section 2: Inorganic Chemistry

Main Group Elements: Hydrides, halides, oxides, oxoacids, nitrides, sulfides – shapes and reactivity. Structure and bonding of boranes, carboranes, silicones, silicates, boron nitride, borazines and phosphazenes. Allotropes of carbon. Chemistry of noble gases, pseudohalogens, and interhalogen compounds. Acid-base concepts.

Transition Elements: Coordination chemistry – structure and isomerism, theories of bonding (VBT, CFT, and MOT). Energy level diagrams in various crystal fields, CFSE, applications of CFT, Jahn-Teller distortion. Electronic spectra of transition metal complexes: spectroscopic term symbols, selection rules, Orgel diagrams, charge-transfer spectra. Magnetic properties of transition metal complexes. Reaction mechanisms: kinetic and thermodynamic stability, substitution and redox reactions.

Lanthanides and Actinides: Recovery. Periodic properties, spectra and magnetic properties. Organometallics: 18-Electron rule; metal-alkyl, metal-carbonyl, metal-olefin and metal carbene complexes and metallocenes. Fluxionality in organometallic complexes. Types of organometallic reactions. Homogeneous catalysis - Hydrogenation, hydroformylation, acetic acid synthesis, metathesis and olefin oxidation. Heterogeneous catalysis - FischerTropsch reaction, Ziegler-Natta polymerization.

Radioactivity: Decay processes, half-life of radioactive elements, fission and fusion processes.

Bioinorganic Chemistry: Ion (Na+ and K+) transport, oxygen binding, transport and utilization, electron transfer reactions, nitrogen fixation, metalloenzymes containing magnesium, molybdenum, iron, cobalt, copper and zinc.

Solids: Crystal systems and lattices, Miller planes, crystal packing, crystal defects, Bragg’s law, ionic crystals, structures of AX, AX2, ABX3 type compounds, spinels, band theory, metals and semiconductors.

Instrumental Methods of Analysis: UV-visible spectrophotometry, NMR and ESR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry. Chromatography including GC and HPLC. Electroanalytical methods- polarography, cyclic voltammetry, ion-selective electrodes. Thermoanalytical methods.

Section 3: Organic Chemistry

Stereochemistry: Chirality of organic molecules with or without chiral centres and determination of their absolute configurations. Relative stereochemistry in compounds having more than one stereogenic centre. Homotopic, enantiotopic and diastereotopic atoms, groups and faces. Stereoselective and stereospecific synthesis. Conformational analysis of acyclic and cyclic compounds. Geometrical isomerism. Configurational and conformational effects, and neighbouring group participation on reactivity and selectivity/specificity.

Reaction Mechanisms: Basic mechanistic concepts – kinetic versus thermodynamic control, Hammond’s postulate and Curtin-Hammett principle. Methods of determining reaction mechanisms through identification of products, intermediates and isotopic labeling. Nucleophilic and electrophilic substitution reactions (both aromatic and aliphatic). Addition reactions to carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom (N,O) multiple bonds. Elimination reactions. Reactive intermediates – carbocations, carbanions, carbenes, nitrenes, arynes and free radicals. Molecular rearrangements involving electron deficient atoms.

Organic Synthesis: Synthesis, reactions, mechanisms and selectivity involving the following classes of compounds – alkenes, alkynes, arenes, alcohols, phenols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, nitriles, halides, nitro compounds, amines and amides. Uses of Mg, Li, Cu, B, Zn and Si based reagents in organic synthesis. Carbon-carbon bond formation through coupling reactions - Heck, Suzuki, Stille and Sonogoshira. Concepts of multistep synthesis - retrosynthetic analysis, strategic disconnections, synthons and synthetic equivalents. Umpolung reactivity – formyl and acyl anion equivalents. Selectivity in organic synthesis – chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity. Protection and deprotection of functional groups. Concepts of asymmetric synthesis – resolution (including enzymatic), desymmetrization and use of chiral auxilliaries. Carbon-carbon bond forming reactions through enolates (including boron enolates), enamines and silyl enol ethers. Michael addition reaction. Stereoselective addition to C=O groups (Cram and Felkin-Anh models).

Pericyclic Reactions and Photochemistry: Electrocyclic, cycloaddition and sigmatropic reactions. Orbital correlations - FMO and PMO treatments. Photochemistry of alkenes, arenes and carbonyl compounds. Photooxidation and photoreduction. Di-π-methane rearrangement, Barton reaction.

Heterocyclic Compounds: Structure, preparation, properties and reactions of furan, pyrrole, thiophene, pyridine, indole, quinoline and isoquinoline.

Biomolecules: Structure, properties and reactions of mono- and di-saccharides, physicochemical properties of amino acids, chemical synthesis of peptides, structural features of proteins, nucleic acids, steroids, terpenoids, carotenoids, and alkaloids.

Spectroscopy: Applications of UV-visible, IR, NMR and Mass spectrometry in the structural determination of organic molecules

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