JEE Advanced Physical Chemistry Syllabus

Physical chemistry

General topics: Concept of atoms and molecules; Dalton’s atomic theory; Mole concept; Chemical formulae; Balanced chemical equations; Calculations (based on mole concept) involving common o11dation-reduction, neutralisation, and displacement reactions; Concentration in terms of mole fraction, molarity, molality and normality.

Gaseous and liquid states: Absolute scale of temperature, ideal gas equation; Deviation from ideality, van der Waals equation; Kinetic theory of gases, average, root mean square and most probable velocities and their relation with  temperature; Law  of  partial  pressures;  Vapour  pressure;  Diffusion  of gases.

Atomic structure and chemical bonding:   Bohr model, spectrum of hydrogen atom, quantum numbers; Wave-particle duality, de Broglie hypothesis; Uncertainty principle; Qualitative quantum mechanical picture of hydrogen atom, shapes of s, p and d orbitals; Electronic configurations of elements (up to atomic number 36); Aufbau principle; Pauli’s exclusion principle and Hund’s rule; Orbital overlap and covalent bond; Hybridisation involving s, p and d orbitals only; Orbital energy diagrams for homonuclear diatomic species; Hydrogen bond; Polarity in molecules, dipole moment (qualitative aspects only); VSEPR model and shapes of molecules (linear, angular, triangular, square planar, pyramidal, square pyramidal, trigonal bipyramidal, tetrahedral and octahedral).

Chemical equilibrium: Law of mass action; Equilibrium constant, Le Chatelier’s principle (effect of concentration, temperature and pressure); Significance of ΔG and ΔG0 in chemical equilibrium; Solubility product, common ion effect, pH and buffer solutions;   Acids and bases (Bronsted and Lewis concepts); Hydrolysis of salts.

Electrochemistry: Electrochemical cells and cell reactions; Standard electrode potentials; Nernst equation and its relation to ΔG; Electrochemical series, emf of galvanic cells; Faraday’s laws of electrolysis; Electrolytic conductance, specific, equivalent and molar conductivity, Kohlrausch’s law; Concentration cells.

Chemical kinetics:   Rates of chemical reactions; Order of reactions; Rate constant; First order reactions; Temperature dependence of rate constant (Arrhenius equation).

Solid state: Classification of solids, crystalline state, seven crystal systems (cell parameters a, b, c, α, β, γ), close packed structure of solids (cubic), packing in fcc, bcc and hcp lattices; Nearest neighbours, ionic radii, simple ionic compounds, point defects.

Solutions:   Raoult’s law; Molecular weight determination from lowering of vapour pressure, elevation of boiling point and depression of freezing point.