CSIR NET Chemical Science Syllabus

Name of the Examination

CSIR National Eligibility Test (NET)

Conducting Body

National Testing Agency

Examination Frequency

Twice a year

• June

• December

Exam Mode

Online

Exam Eligibility

Post Graduation from science stream with minimum aggregate of 50%

Exam Objective

• Eligibility for Assistant Professor or Lecturer

• Awarded as Junior Research Fellowship

Inorganic Chemistry

• Chemical periodicity

• Structure and bonding in homo- and heteronuclear molecules, including Concepts of acids and bases, shapes molecules (VSEPR Theory). Hard-Soft acid base concept, Non-aqueous solvents.

• Main group elements and their compounds: Allotropy, structure and bonding, synthesis, industrial importance of the compounds.

• Transition elements and coordination compounds: structure, bonding theories, spectral and magnetic properties, reaction mechanisms.

• Inner transition elements: redox chemistry, spectral and magnetic properties, analytical applications.

• Organometallic compounds: synthesis, bonding and structure, and reactivity. Organometallics in homogeneous catalysis.

• Cages and metal clusters.

• Analytical chemistry- separation, spectroscopic, electro- and thermoanalytical methods.

• Bioinorganic chemistry: porphyrins, metalloenzymes, photosystems, oxygen

• transport, electron- transfer reactions; nitrogen fixation, metal complexes in medicine.

• Characterisation of inorganic compounds by IR, Raman, UV-vis, NQR, NMR, EPR, Mössbauer, MS, electron spectroscopy and microscopic techniques.

• Nuclear chemistry: fission and fusion, nuclear reactions, radio-analytical techniques and activation analysis.

Physical chemistry

• Basic principles of quantum mechanics: Postulates; operator algebra; exactly-solvable systems: harmonic oscillator and the hydrogen atom, particle-in-a-box, including shapes of atomic orbitals; orbital and spin angular momenta; tunneling.

• Approximate methods of quantum mechanics: Variational principle; perturbation theory up to second order in energy; applications.

• Atomic structure and spectroscopy; many-electron systems and antisymmetry principle, term symbols.

• Chemical bonding in diatomics; elementary concepts of MO and VB theories; Huckel theory for conjugated π-electron systems. Chemical applications of group theory; point groups; character tables; symmetry elements; selection rules.

• Molecular spectroscopy: Rotational and vibrational spectra of diatomic molecules; electronic spectra; IR and Raman activities – basic principles of magnetic resonance, selection rules.

• Chemical thermodynamics: Laws, state and path functions and their applications; thermodynamic description of various types processes; Maxwell’s relations; spontaneity and equilibria; temperature and pressure dependence of thermodynamic quantities; phase equilibria and phase rule; Le Chatelier principle; elementary description of phase transitions; thermodynamics of ideal and non-ideal gases, and solutions.

• Statistical thermodynamics: kinetic theory of gases; Boltzmann distribution; partition functions and their relation to thermodynamic quantities – calculations for model systems.

• Electrochemistry: Nernst equation, redox systems, DebyeHuckel theory; electrochemical cells; electrolytic conductance – Kohlrausch’s law and its applications; conductometric and potentiometric titrations, ionic equilibria.

• Chemical kinetics: Empirical rate laws and temperature dependence; determination of reaction mechanisms; complex reactions; steady state approximation; collision and transition state theories of rate constants; homogeneous catalysis; unimolecular reactions; enzyme kinetics; salt effects; photochemical reactions.

• Colloids and surfaces: Stability and properties of colloids; heterogeneous catalysis, isotherms and surface area. Solid state: Bragg’s law and applications; Crystal structures; band structure of solids.

• Polymer chemistry: Molar masses; kinetics of polymerization.

• Data analysis: Mean and standard deviation; linear regression; absolute and relative errors; covariance and correlation coefficient.

Organic Chemistry

• IUPAC nomenclature of organic molecules including regio- and stereoisomers.

• Principles of stereochemistry: Configurational and conformational isomerism in acyclic and cyclic compounds; stereoselectivity, enantioselectivity, stereogenicity, diastereoselectivity and asymmetric induction.

• Aromaticity: Benzenoid and non-benzenoid compounds – generation and reactions.

• Organic reactive intermediates: Generation, carbanions, stability and reactivity of carbocations, free radicals, carbenes, benzynes and nitrenes.

• Organic reaction mechanisms involving addition, nucleophilic or radical species, elimination and substitution reactions with electrophilic. Determination of reaction pathways.

• Common named reactions and rearrangements – applications in organic synthesis.

• 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.

• Concepts in organic synthesis: Retrosynthesis, linear and convergent synthesis, disconnection, synthons, umpolung of reactivity and protecting groups.

• Asymmetric synthesis: Chiral auxiliaries, methods of asymmetric induction – substrate, determination of enantiomeric and diastereomeric excess; reagent and catalyst controlled reactions; enantio-discrimination. Resolution – optical and kinetic.

• Pericyclic reactions – cycloaddition, electrocyclization, sigmatropic rearrangements and other related concerted reactions. Principles and applications of photochemical reactions in organic chemistry.

• Synthesis and reactivity of common heterocyclic compounds containing one or two heteroatoms (O, N, S).

• Chemistry of natural products: Carbohydrates, fatty acids, nucleic acids, terpenes, proteins and peptides, steroids and alkaloids. Biogenesis of terpenoids and alkaloids.

• Structure determination of organic compounds by IR, UV-Vis, 1H & 13C NMR and Mass spectroscopic techniques.

Interdisciplinary Topic

• Chemistry in nanoscience and technology.

• Catalysis and green chemistry.

• Medicinal chemistry.

• Supramolecular chemistry.

• Environmental chemistry

Particulars

Part-A

Part-B

Part-C

Total

Total Questions

20

40

60

120

No. of Questions to Attempt

15

35

25

75

Marks for a correct answer

2

2

4

200

Negative marking for an incorrect answer

0.5

0.5

1

-