CSIR NET JRF Chemical Science

Essential Educational Qualifications:

1. M.Sc. or equivalent degree with at least 55% (without rounding off) marks for General (UR)/General-EWS
   and OBC candidates and 50% (without rounding off) for SC/ST, Third gender and Persons with Disability (PwD) candidates.
2. Candidates enrolled for M.Sc. or having completed 10+2+3 years of the above qualifying
   examination as on the closing date of online submission of Application Form, are also
   eligible to apply in the above subject under the Result Awaited (RA) category
3. B.Sc. (Hons.) or equivalent degree holders or students enrolled in Integrated MS-PhD
   program with at least 55% marks for General (UR)/General-EWS and OBC candidates;
   50%^ marks for SC/ST, Third gender, Persons with Disability (PwD) candidates are also
   eligible to apply.
4. Candidates with Bachelor’s degree will be eligible for CSIR fellowship
   only after getting registered/enrolled for Ph.D./Integrated Ph.D. program within the validity
   period of two years.
5. Candidates possessing only Bachelor’s degree are eligible to
   apply only for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and not for Lectureship
   (LS)/Assistant Professor.
   ^(without rounding off)
6. The eligibility for Lectureship/Assistant Professor of NET qualified candidates will be
   subject to fulfilling the criteria laid down by UGC. Ph.D. degree holders who have passed
   Master’s degree prior to 19th September 1991, with at least 50%^ marks are eligible to
   apply for Lectureship/Assistant Professor only. ^(without rounding off)
7. Candidates belonging to the Third gender category are eligible to draw the same
   relaxation in fee, age and Eligibility Criteria for NET (i.e. JRF and Assistant Professor) as
   are available to SC/ST categories. The subject-wise qualifying cut-offs for this category
   would be the lowest among those for SC/ ST/ PwD/ OBC–NCL / General-EWS categories
   in the corresponding subject.

Upper Age Limit

1. JRF: Maximum 28 years as on 01/07/2021* {upper age limit may be relaxable up to5 years in case of SC/ST/Third gender/Persons with Disability (PwD)/female
   applicants and 03 years in case of OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) applicants}.*This age limit is applicable for the current examination cycle only.
2. Lectureship (LS)/ Assistant Professor: No upper age limit.

Mode of Examination

1. The Examinations will be conducted in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode

Pattern of Question Paper

The Test will consist of three parts. All the parts will consist of objective type, multiple
choice questions. There will be no break between papers. The subject-wise scheme
of examination is as per details below:

Chemical Sciences: The candidate is required to answer a maximum of 15, 35 and 25
questions from Part-A, Part-B and Part-C respectively. If more than required number of
questions are answered, only first 15, 35 and 25 questions in Part A, Part B and Part C
respectively will be taken up for evaluation. Below each question in Part A, Part B and
Part C, four alternatives or responses are given. Only one of these alternatives is the
"correct" option to the question. The candidate has to find, for each question, the correct
or the best answer.

Paper Section Details

1. Part 'A' shall be common to all subjects. This part shall contain questions
   pertaining to General Aptitude with emphasis on logical reasoning,
   graphical analysis, analytical and numerical ability, quantitative
   comparison, series formation, puzzles etc.
2. Part 'B' shall contain subject-related conventional Multiple-Choice questions
   (MCQs), generally covering the topics given in the syllabus.
3. Part 'C' shall contain higher order questions that may test the candidate's
   knowledge of scientific concepts and/or application of the scientific
   concepts. The questions shall be of analytical nature where a candidate is
   expected to apply scientific knowledge to arrive at the solution to the
   given scientific problem.

Inorganic Chemistry

1. Chemical periodicity
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; exactlysolvable 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.

Interdisciplinary topics

1. Chemistry in nanoscience and technology.
2. Catalysis and green chemistry.
3. Medicinal chemistry.
4. Supramolecular chemistry.
5. Environmental chemistry