JAM 2026

Chemistry (CY)

Section 1: Basic Mathematical Concepts (10+2 Level):

Functions; maxima and minima; integrals; ordinary differential equations; vectors and ma-
trices; determinants; elementary statistics.

Section 2: Physical Chemistry

2.1: Atomic and Molecular Structure: Planck’s black body radiation, Photoelectric
effect, Bohr’s theory, de Broglie postulate, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle; Schrödinger’s
wave equation (including mathematical treatment), postulates of quantum mechanics, nor-
malized and orthogonal wave functions, its complex conjugate (idea of complex numbers)
and significance of Ψ2 ; Operators; Particle in one- dimension box, radial and angular wave
functions for hydrogen atom, radial probability distribution; Finding maxima of distribution
functions (idea of maxima and minima), energy spectrum of hydrogen atom; Shapes of s, p,
d and f orbitals; Pauli’s Exclusion Principle; Hund’s rule of maximum multiplicity.
2.2: Gaseous State: Kinetic molecular model of a gas: collision frequency; collision
diameter; mean free path and viscosity of gases; Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution: molecular
velocities, law of equipartition of energy, molecular basis of heat capacities; Ideal gases, and
deviations from ideal gas behaviour, van der Waals equation of state; critical state, law of
corresponding states.
2.3: Liquid State: Physical properties of Liquid, vapour pressure, surface tension and
co-efficient of viscosity and their applications; effect of concentration of solutes on surface
tension and viscosity; effect of temperature on viscosity of liquids.
2.4: Solid State: Unit Cells, Miller indices, crystal systems and Bravais Lattices, elemen-
tary applications of vectors to crystal systems; X-ray diffraction, Bragg’s Law, Structure
of NaCl, CsCl, and KCl, diamond, and graphite; Close packing in metals and metal com-
pounds, semiconductors, insulators; Defects in crystals, lattice energy; isomorphism; heat
capacity of solids.
2.5: Chemical Thermodynamics: Mathematical treatment: Exact and in-exact dif-
ferentials, partial derivatives, Euler’s reciprocity, cyclic rule; Reversible and irreversible
processes; Laws of thermodynamics, thermochemistry, thermodynamic functions, such as
enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy, their properties and applications; Partial molar
quantities, dependence of thermodynamic parameters on composition, Gibbs Duhem equa-
tion, chemical potential and its applications.
2.6: Chemical and Phase Equilibria: Law of mass action; Kp , Kc , Kx and Kn ; Effect
of temperature on K; Le-Chatelier principle; Ionic equilibria in solutions; pH and buffer
solutions; Salt hydrolysis; Solubility and solubility product; Acid – base titration curves;
Indicators; Dilute solutions; Raoult’s and Henry’s Laws and their applications; Colligative
properties; Gibbs phase rule; Phase equilibria; single and two- component phase diagrams.
2.7: Electrochemistry: Conductivity, equivalent and molar conductivity and their prop-
erties; Kohlrausch law; DebyeHückel-Onsager equation; Ionic velocities, mobilities, transfer-

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ence numbers; Applications of conductance measurement; Quantitative aspects of Faraday’s
laws of electrolysis, applications of electrolysis in metallurgy and industry; Electromotive
force of a cell, Nernst equation; Standard electrode potential, Electrochemical series; Con-
centration cells with and without transference; Applications of EMF measurements including
potentiometric titrations.
2.8: Chemical Kinetics: Order and molecularity of a reaction, differential and integrated
form of rate expressions; Kinetics of opposing, parallel, and consecutive reactions; Steady
state approximation in reaction mechanisms; Chain reactions; Uni-molecular reaction (Lin-
demann mechanism); Temperature dependence of reaction rates, Arrhenius equation; activa-
tion energy; Collision theory of reaction rates; Types of catalysts, specificity and selectivity,
mechanisms of catalyzed reactions at solid surfaces; Enzyme catalysis (Michaelis-Menten
mechanism, Double reciprocal plot), Acid-base catalysis.
2.9: Adsorption: Gibbs adsorption equation; adsorption isotherm; types of adsorption;
surface area of adsorbents; surface films on liquids.
2.10: Spectroscopy: Beer-Lambert’s law; fundamental concepts of rotational, vibrational,
electronic and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Section 3: Organic Chemistry

3.1: 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, substituted cyclohexanes, and polycyclic (cis and trans decalins) systems.
3.2: Organic Reaction Mechanism and Synthetic Applications: Chemistry of re-
active intermediates (carbocations, carbanions, free radicals, carbenes, nitrenes, benzynes);
nucleophilic substitution, elimination reactions and mechanisms; Hofmann-Curtius- Lossen
rearrangement, Wolff rearrangement, Simmons-Smith reaction, Reimer-Tiemann reaction,
Michael reaction, Darzens reaction, Wittig reaction and McMurry reaction; Pinacolpina-
colone, Favorskii, benzilic acid rearrangement, Baeyer-Villeger reaction; oxidation and re-
duction reactions in organic chemistry; Organometallic reagents in organic synthesis (Grig-
nard, organolithium , organocopper and organozinc (Reformatsky only); Diels-Alder, elec-
trocyclic and sigmatropic reactions; functional group inter-conversions and structural prob-
lems using chemical reactions.
3.3: Qualitative Organic Analysis: Identification of functional groups by chemical tests;
elementary UV, IR and 1 H NMR spectroscopic techniques as tools for structural elucidation
of simple organic molecules.
3.4: Natural Products Chemistry: Chemistry of alkaloids, steroids, terpenes, carbohy-
drates, amino acids, peptides and nucleic acids.
3.5: Aromatic and Heterocyclic Chemistry: Monocyclic, bicyclic and tricyclic aro-
matic hydrocarbons, and monocyclic compounds with one hetero atom: synthesis, reactivity
and properties, aromaticity; Electrophilic and nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions.

Section 4: Inorganic Chemistry

4.1: Periodic Table: Periodic classification of elements, Aufbau’s principle, periodicity;
Variations of orbital energy, effective nuclear charge, atomic, covalent, and ionic radii, ioniza-

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tion enthalpy, electron gain enthalpy, and electronegativity with atomic number, electronic
configuration of diatomic molecules (first and second row elements).
4.2: Extractions of Metals: General methods of isolation and purification of elements;
Principles and applications of Ellingham diagram.
4.3: Chemical Bonding and shapes of molecules: Ionic bond: Packing of ions in crys-
tals, radius ratio rule, Born-Landé equation, Kapustinskii expression, Madelung constant,
Born-Haber cycle, solvation energy, polarizing power and polarizability; Fajan’s rules; Co-
valent bond: Lewis structure, valence bond theory. Hybridization, molecular orbital theory,
molecular orbital diagrams of diatomic and simple polyatomic molecules and ions; Multi-
ple bonding (σ and π bond approach) and bond lengths; van der Waals forces, ion-dipole
forces, dipole-dipole interactions, induced dipole interactions, instantaneous dipole- induced
dipole interactions, hydrogen bonding; Effect of intermolecular forces on melting and boil-
ing points, solubility energetics of dissolution process; Bond dipole, dipole moment, and
molecular polarizabilities; VSEPR theory and shapes of molecules; ionic solids.
4.4: Main Group Elements (s and p blocks): Reactions of alkali and alkaline earth
metals with oxygen, hydrogen and water; Alkali and alkaline earth metals in liquid ammonia;
Gradation in properties of main group element in a group; Inert pair effect; Synthesis,
structure and properties of diborane, ammonia, silane, phosphine and hydrogen sulphide;
Allotropes of carbon; Oxides of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur; Oxoacids of phosphorus,
sulphur and chlorine; Halides of silicon and phosphorus; Synthesis and properties of borazine,
silicone and phosphazene; Synthesis and reactions of xenon fluorides.
4.5: Transition Metals (d block): Characteristics of d-block elements; oxide, hydrox-
ide 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
with metal-ligand single and multiple bonds (such as metal carbonyls, metal nitrosyls and
metallocenes); Homogenous catalysis involving Wilkinson’s catalyst.
4.6: Bioinorganic Chemistry: Essentials and trace elements of life; basic reactions in
the biological systems and the role of metal ions, especially F e2+ , and Zn2+ ; structure and
function of myoglobin, hemoglobin and carbonic anhydrase.
4.7: Instrumental Methods of Analysis: Basic principles; instrumentations and simple
applications of conductometry, potentiometry and UV-vis spectrophotometry; analyses of
water, air and soil samples.
4.8: Analytical Chemistry: Principles of qualitative and quantitative analysis; Acid-
base, oxidation- reduction and complexometric titrations using EDTA; Precipitation reac-
tions; Use and types of indicators; Use of organic reagents in inorganic analysis; Radioac-
tivity, nuclear reactions, applications of isotopes; Mathematical treatment in error analysis,
elementary statistics and probability theory.