CSIR NET Chemistry Syllabus: Chemical Sciences Unit by Unit

CSIR NET chemistry syllabus: paper pattern first

Go past the cap in any part and the extra responses simply are not marked. With 60 Part C questions on screen and only 25 to attempt, your real task in that part is picking the 25 you are surest of.

Inorganic chemistry units

1. Chemical periodicity
2. Structure and bonding in homo and heteronuclear molecules, including molecular shapes by VSEPR theory
3. Acid base concepts, the hard and soft acid base principle and non aqueous solvents
4. Main group elements and their compounds: allotropy, synthesis, structure, bonding and industrial importance
5. Transition elements and coordination compounds: structure, bonding theories, spectral and magnetic properties, reaction mechanisms
6. Inner transition elements: spectral and magnetic behaviour, redox chemistry, analytical uses
7. Organometallic compounds: synthesis, bonding, structure, reactivity, and their role in homogeneous catalysis
8. Cages and metal clusters
9. Analytical chemistry: separation, spectroscopic, electroanalytical and thermoanalytical methods
10. Bioinorganic chemistry: photosystems, porphyrins, metalloenzymes, oxygen transport, electron transfer, nitrogen fixation, metal complexes in medicine
11. Characterisation of inorganic compounds by IR, Raman, NMR, EPR, Mossbauer, UV visible, NQR, mass spectrometry, electron spectroscopy and microscopy
12. Nuclear chemistry: nuclear reactions, fission, fusion, radioanalytical techniques and activation analysis

Physical chemistry units

1. Basic quantum mechanics: postulates, operators, the Schrodinger equation, and exactly solvable systems such as particle in a box, harmonic oscillator and the hydrogen atom
2. Approximate methods: variation and perturbation theory
3. Atomic structure and spectroscopy, term symbols, many electron systems and the antisymmetry principle
4. Bonding in diatomic molecules; molecular orbital and valence bond ideas; Huckel theory for conjugated pi systems
5. Group theory in chemistry: symmetry elements, point groups, character tables, selection rules
6. Molecular spectroscopy: rotational, vibrational and electronic spectra, IR and Raman selection rules, basic principles of NMR and ESR
7. Chemical thermodynamics: the laws, state and path functions, Maxwell relations, spontaneity and equilibrium, phase rule, ideal and non ideal gases and solutions
8. Statistical thermodynamics: Boltzmann distribution, kinetic theory, partition functions and model calculations
9. Electrochemistry: Nernst equation, cells, Debye Huckel theory, conductance and Kohlrausch's law, ionic equilibria, conductometric and potentiometric titrations
10. Chemical kinetics: rate laws, temperature dependence, complex reactions, steady state approximation, collision and transition state theories, unimolecular and enzyme kinetics, salt effects, photochemical reactions
11. Colloids and surfaces: colloid stability, adsorption isotherms, surface area, heterogeneous catalysis
12. Solid state: crystal structures, Bragg's law and band structure
13. Polymer chemistry: molar masses and polymerisation kinetics
14. Data analysis: mean, standard deviation, errors, linear regression, covariance and correlation

Organic chemistry units

1. IUPAC nomenclature, including regio and stereoisomers
2. Stereochemistry: configuration and conformation in open chain and ring compounds, stereoselectivity and asymmetric induction
3. Aromaticity in benzenoid and non benzenoid compounds
4. Reactive intermediates: carbocations, carbanions, free radicals, carbenes, benzynes and nitrenes
5. Reaction mechanisms of addition, elimination and substitution, and how pathways are determined
6. Common named reactions and rearrangements and their use in synthesis
7. Organic transformations and reagents: functional group interconversion, oxidation, reduction, chemo, regio and stereoselective reactions
8. Concepts in synthesis: retrosynthesis, disconnections, synthons, linear and convergent routes, umpolung, protecting groups
9. Asymmetric synthesis: chiral auxiliaries, substrate, reagent and catalyst control, enantiomeric and diastereomeric excess, optical and kinetic resolution
10. Pericyclic reactions (electrocyclic, cycloaddition, sigmatropic) and organic photochemistry
11. Heterocycles with one or two O, N or S atoms
12. Natural products: carbohydrates, peptides and proteins, fatty acids, nucleic acids, terpenes, steroids and alkaloids, with biogenesis of terpenoids and alkaloids
13. Structure determination by IR, UV visible, proton and carbon 13 NMR, and mass spectrometry

Interdisciplinary topics and Part A

The interdisciplinary block is short and easy to revise in a week: chemistry in nanoscience and technology, catalysis and green chemistry, medicinal chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and environmental chemistry.

Part A is not chemistry at all. Its 20 items on puzzles, chart reading, arithmetic, sequences and data analysis are shared to all five CSIR subjects, as the main CSIR NET syllabus page explains, and 15 correct answers give you a full 30 marks.

Where chemistry marks are won and lost

The bulletin assigns no official weight to any unit, and questions come from all three main branches. Within that spread, a handful of areas separate strong scores from average ones:

• Spectroscopy everywhere: NMR, IR and mass in organic, group theory and molecular spectroscopy in physical, and EPR and Mossbauer in inorganic. Mastering spectroscopy pays in all three branches.
• Coordination and organometallic chemistry: electron counting, crystal field splitting and catalytic cycles are reliable Part C sources.
• Organic synthesis: named reactions, rearrangements and reagents form long multi step questions where one slip costs 4 marks plus 1 as penalty.
• Quantum chemistry and kinetics: calculation based questions that many organic minded students skip, which makes them valuable if you can do them.

A five month plan for Chemical Sciences

1. Month 1: inorganic units 1 to 7 and the matching physical units on bonding and group theory, with a page of summary notes for each.
2. Month 2: organic units in full, including a reaction notebook of named reactions and reagents.
3. Month 3: the rest of physical chemistry and the inorganic spectroscopy, bioinorganic and nuclear units.
4. Month 4: past Part C questions unit by unit from previous papers on the NTA site, plus daily Part A sets.
5. Month 5: weekly full length timed papers in the computer format, with an analysis of which questions you should have skipped.

Use the standard university textbooks from your MSc for each branch rather than short notes alone. Degree, percentage and age conditions are set out in our CSIR NET eligibility guide, past qualifying marks are on CSIR NET cut off, and chemistry graduates still choosing a master's course can look at the IIT JAM chemistry syllabus.