STPT SA : Scientific & Technical Proficiency Test – Track Change for Technician to Scientific Assistant

STPT-SA Exam Syllabus – Chemistry

Scientific & Technical Proficiency Test – Track Change for Technician to Scientific Assistant

Syllabus approved by Government of India, BARC, TC & TSC Secretariat, STPT syllabus, No. TC/201/NC-3 (Action)/ 2025/113671/ dated 16.03.2026

1. Structure of Atom

• Concept of atomic orbitals
• Bohr’s atomic model
• Shapes of s-, p-, and d-orbitals
• Rules for filling electrons in orbitals – Aufbau principle, Pauli’s exclusion principle and Hund’s rule
• Electronic configuration
• Stability of half-filled and completely filled orbitals
• Atomic term symbols

2. Elementary Quantum Chemistry

• Quantum mechanics versus classical mechanics
• Wave-particle duality
• de Broglie’s relationship
• Heisenberg uncertainty principle
• Expectation value
• Properties of Hermitian operators
• Schrödinger equation for one electron system
• Eigenfunction and eigenvalue
• Free particle
• Particle in a one dimensional box
• Harmonic oscillator
• Wave function and probability density of hydrogen atom

3. Chemical Bonding & Molecular Structures

• Types of bonding: ionic, covalent and metallic
• Attractive and repulsive potential energy
• Weak chemical forces: van der Waals, ion-dipole, dipole-dipole, induced dipole and hydrogen bonding
• Born-Oppenheimer approximation
• Valence-bond theory
• Molecular orbital theory
• Molecular orbital diagrams of homonuclear (H₂, N₂, O₂) and heteronuclear (CO, NO) diatomic molecules and their ions
• Linear combinations of atomic orbitals (bonding and anti-bonding orbitals)
• Hückel molecular orbital approximation (simple π-systems)
• Hybrid orbitals
• Fajan’s rule

4. States of Matter

Gaseous State

• Gas laws
• Mixtures of gases
• Ideal and real gases
• van der Waals equation of state
• Law of corresponding state
• Liquefaction of gases
• Compressibility factor
• Critical constants
• Kinetic gas equations
• Maxwell distribution
• Collision theory

Liquid State

• Vapour pressure
• Viscosity
• Surface tension
• Superfluid
• Liquid crystal
• Ionic liquids
• Supercritical fluids

Solid State

• Crystal lattice
• Unit cells
• Miller indices
• Packing in solids
• Voids and defects
• Characterization of solid’s structure: X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction
• Metallic solids: FCC, BCC and HCP
• Ionic and molecular solids: NaCl, CsCl, ZnS, CaF₂, Na₂O, spinels, graphite and diamond
• Properties of solids: thermal, optical, mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties
• Crystallization and crystal growth
• Band theory
• Polymorphism and allotropy
• Structural transformations

5. Thermodynamics

• Laws of thermodynamics
• State properties
• Carnot cycle
• Enthalpy
• Entropy
• Free energies
• Heat capacity and specific heat
• Hess’s law
• Enthalpies of bond dissociation, combustion, formation, atomization, sublimation, phase transformation, ionization and solution
• Free energy changes: spontaneous and non-spontaneous processes
• Partial molar quantities
• Chemical potential
• Gibbs-Duhem equation
• Clapeyron equation
• Homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions
• Effect of pressure and temperature on chemical reaction
• Phase rule
• Phase transitions
• Binary phase diagrams
• Liquid-solid-vapour equilibrium (water system)
• Eutectics
• Colligative properties

6. Chemical Equilibrium

• Thermodynamic interpretation of equilibrium
• Equilibrium constants
• Factors affecting equilibrium
• Ionic equilibrium – ionization of acids and bases
• Strong and weak electrolytes
• Degree of ionization
• Concept of pH
• Hydrolysis of salts
• Buffer solutions
• Acid-base titration
• Solubility product
• Common-ion effect

7. Electrochemistry

• Redox reaction and redox potential
• Electrochemical cells and cell potential
• Electrochemical series
• Redox titration
• Nernst equation
• Standard electrodes and standard potential
• Activity and activity coefficient
• Conductance
• Equivalent and molar conductivity
• Reversible and irreversible electrochemical cells
• Electrolysis and its applications
• Overpotential and formal potential
• Disproportionation and comproportionation reactions
• Working principle of Lithium and Sodium ion batteries
• Working principle of fuel cells

8. Chemical Kinetics

• Rate of reaction
• Order of reaction
• Parallel, consecutive and opposing reactions
• Steady-state approximation
• Pre-equilibrium
• Effect of temperature, pressure and catalysis
• Free radical chain reaction
• Polymerization
• Potential energy surface for chemical reaction: reaction path, valley and saddle point
• Effect of ionic strength
• Collisional and transition state theory of reaction rate
• Kinetic isotope effect

9. Surface Chemistry

• Physisorption and chemisorption
• Adsorption isotherms: Freundlich, Langmuir, BET and Gibbs
• Rate of surface processes
• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Processes at electrode surface
• Properties of colloids
• Colloidal stability
• Tyndall effect
• Brownian movement
• Electrophoresis
• Coagulation
• Types of emulsions
• Micelles and emulsions

10. Molecular Spectroscopy and Applications

• Electromagnetic spectrum
• Basic principle and application of UV-Vis spectroscopy
• IR spectroscopy
• Microwave spectroscopy
• ESR spectroscopy
• NMR spectroscopy
• Mössbauer spectroscopy
• Raman spectroscopy

11. Photochemistry

• Photophysical processes in electronic excited states
• Radiative and non-radiative transitions
• Solvent effect on emission
• Lippert equation
• Dynamic Stokes’ shift
• Dynamic and static quenching
• Förster resonance energy transfer
• Excimer and exciplex
• Norrish type I and type II cleavage
• Photoinduced cis-trans isomerisation
• Chemistry of vision

12. Hydrogen

• Position of hydrogen in periodic table
• Abundance
• Isotopes of hydrogen
• Ortho- and para-hydrogen
• Preparation, properties and uses of hydrogen
• Physical and chemical properties of water and heavy water
• Hydrogen as a fuel
• Green, Blue, Brown and Grey hydrogen
• Safety aspects of H₂ gas handling
• Fundamentals of H₂ storage

13. s- and p-Block Elements

• Diagonal relationship
• Trends in variation of properties: ionization enthalpy, atomic and ionic radii, metallic character, melting and boiling temperatures
• Production of sodium metal and properties of liquid sodium
• Portland cement
• Salts of oxo-acids
• Alkyls and aryls of lithium and magnesium and their use
• Preparation, physical and chemical properties of boron and aluminum
• Boric acid
• Boron nitride
• Hydrides of borane
• Borates
• Carboranes
• Uses of boron compounds in nuclear industry
• Carbon allotropes: graphite and diamond
• Catenation
• Elementary idea of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene
• Carbon isotopes and their uses
• Comparison of silicon with carbon
• Production of silicon
• Structure, properties and use of silicon tetrachloride, silicones, silicates and zeolites
• Preparation, structure and properties of ammonia, nitric acid and nitrogen oxides (N₂O, NO₂, N₂O₃, N₂O₅)
• Allotropic forms of phosphorus: White, Red, Violet and Black
• Formal oxidation states in phosphorus compounds
• Preparation, properties and uses of phosphine, halides (PCl₃, PCl₅), oxo-acids of phosphorus and phosphates
• Preparation, properties and uses of oxygen, liquid oxygen and ozone
• Common oxides: corundum, hematite and wustite
• Industrial extraction of sulfur
• Allotropes of sulfur
• Valence state of sulfur compounds
• Preparation, properties and uses of SO₂, sulfuric acid, oxoacids of sulfur, H₂S and sulfur halides
• Valence states of halogens
• Preparation and properties of hydrogen halides: HF, HCl, HBr and HI
• Interhalogen compounds
• Oxoacids of halogens
• Abundance of inert gases
• Helium isotopes
• Helium as cryogenic fluid
• Industrial extraction of argon
• Uses of inert gases
• Inert gas nuclear fission products

14. d-Block Elements

• Electronic configuration
• General trends in properties of first-row transition metals
• Metallic character
• Ionization enthalpy
• Oxidation states
• Ionic radii
• Color
• Catalytic property
• Magnetic properties
• Interstitial compounds
• Alloy formation

15. f-Block Elements

Lanthanides

• Electronic configuration
• Oxidation states
• Chemical reactivity
• Lanthanide contraction
• Optical and magnetic properties
• Types of minerals and extraction of lanthanides from monazite and xenotime
• Light and heavy rare earths

Actinides

• Electronic configuration
• Oxidation states
• Comparison between lanthanide and actinide contraction
• Transuranic elements

16. General Principles and Processes for Isolation of Elements

• Stages of extraction
• Ore beneficiation
• Concentration
• Oxidation
• Reduction
• Electrolytic extraction
• Refining/purification
• Ultra-purification
• Occurrence and principles of extraction of aluminium, copper, zinc and iron

17. Coordination and Organometallic Compounds

• Ligands and complexes
• Coordination number
• Color, magnetic properties and shapes
• Werner’s theory of coordination compounds
• IUPAC nomenclature
• Mononuclear and binuclear coordination compounds
• Denticity of ligands
• Bonding in coordination compounds
• Zwitterionic compounds
• Hepticity of organic ligands and 18-electron rule
• Metal carbonyls: mono and binuclear
• Metal alkyls
• Ferrocene
• Basic concept of organic linkers in framework compounds: metal organic framework (MOF) and covalent organic framework (COF)

18. Bio-Inorganic Chemistry

• Major mineral and essential trace elements in biological systems
• Role of metal ions, especially Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺, Cu²⁺/Cu⁺ and Zn²⁺, in biological systems
• Sodium-potassium pump

19. Organic Chemistry – Basic Principles

• IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds
• Inductive effect
• Electromeric effect
• Resonance
• Hyperconjugation
• Reactive intermediates: structure and stability of free radicals, carbocations, carbanions, arynes, carbenes and nitrenes

20. Chemistry of Functional Groups

• Aliphatic hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes and alkynes): conformations
• Methods of preparation
• Markovnikov’s addition and peroxide effect
• Ozonolysis reactions
• Cycloalkanes and their relative stability
• Baeyer strain theory
• Conformation analysis of cyclohexane
• Aromatic hydrocarbons: aromaticity and polyaromatic hydrocarbons
• Electrophilic reactions in benzene, naphthalene and anthracene
• Alcohols, phenols and ethers: methods of preparation
• Identification of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols
• Preparation and uses of crown ethers
• Aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids: physical and chemical properties
• Mechanism of nucleophilic addition
• Reactivity of alpha hydrogen in aldehydes

21. Organic Compounds Containing Nitrogen

• Amines – methods of preparation and properties
• Physical and chemical properties of pyridine, piperidine and pyrrole
• Cyanides and isocyanides
• Diazonium salts – preparation, chemical reactions and importance in synthetic organic chemistry

22. Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds

• Structural isomerism: chain, position and functional
• Stereoisomerism: configurational and conformational
• Chirality and enantiomers
• Stereogenic/chiral centre
• Representation of configuration by projection formulae: Fischer, Newman and Sawhorse
• Stereochemistry of carbon compounds
• Enantiomers, diastereomers and racemic mixtures and their properties
• Threo, erythro and mesoisomers
• Diastereomerism (geometrical isomerism) due to restricted rotation around carbon-carbon double bond

23. Biomolecules

Carbohydrates

• Classification: aldoses and ketoses
• Monosaccharides: glucose and fructose
• Oligosaccharides: sucrose, lactose and maltose
• Polysaccharides: starch, cellulose and glycogen
• Importance of carbohydrates

Proteins

• Zwitterionic properties of alpha amino acids
• Synthesis of peptides
• Basic structures of proteins: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary

Nucleic Acids

• Structure of nitrogenous bases
• Types of nucleic acids
• Basic structure of DNA, RNA and deoxynucleotides

24. Green Synthetic Chemistry

• Concepts and principles of green chemistry in organic synthesis
• Environmental impact factor (E-factor)
• Atom economy

25. Name Reactions in Organic Chemistry

• Rearrangement reactions: pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement, Fries rearrangement and Claisen rearrangement
• Condensation reactions: aldol condensation, benzoin condensation, Mannich reaction and Knoevenagel condensation
• Addition reactions: Michael addition and Diels-Alder reaction
• Reduction and oxidation: Birch reduction, Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction, Clemmensen reduction, Wolff-Kishner reduction and Baeyer-Villiger oxidation
• Aromatic substitution reactions: Friedel-Crafts reaction, nitration, sulfonation and halogenation
• Wittig reaction
• Sandmeyer reaction
• Reimer-Tiemann reaction

26. Polymers

• Classification: natural and synthetic
• Methods of polymerization: addition and condensation
• Copolymerization
• Properties, modification and applications of industrially important synthetic and natural polymers
• Cellulose
• Starch
• Polyethylene
• Polypropylene
• Polystyrene
• Polymethylmethacrylate
• Polyvinylchloride
• Nylon-66
• Dowex

27. Chemistry of Nano Materials

• Surface to bulk atom fraction in micron and nano-sized materials
• Size-dependent properties
• Introduction to nano-clusters, nano-crystallites and nano-particles
• Synthetic approaches: top-down and bottom-up, with examples
• Ostwald ripening

28. Analytical Chemistry

• Statistical treatment of analytical data
• Accuracy, precision, sensitivity and uncertainty of measurement
• Limit of detection
• Errors and propagation of error
• Calibration methods
• Solvent extraction
• Ion exchange
• Chromatography
• Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
• Differential thermal analysis (DTA)
• Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
• Electroanalytical techniques: voltammetry, coulometry, potentiometry and amperometry
• Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)
• Optical emission spectrometry (OES)
• Mass spectrometry
• Neutron activation analysis (NAA)

29. Nuclear Chemistry

• Constituents of the nucleus
• Nuclear stability and binding energy
• Nuclear isomers and isomeric transitions
• Nuclear spin
• Packing fraction
• Liquid drop model
• Types of radioactive decay
• Transient and secular equilibrium
• Natural and artificial radioactivity
• Nuclear transmutation reactions
• Nuclear fission
• Nuclear fusion
• Fissile and fertile material
• Radiation units and dosimetry: Gy, Sv and Bq
• Radiation detectors: gas detectors, solid-state detectors, track detectors and scintillators
• Working principle of nuclear reactors: PWR, PHWR and fast reactor

30. Environmental Chemistry

• Air, water and soil pollution
• Chemical reactions in atmosphere
• Photochemical reactions in atmosphere
• Air pollutants: particulate matter (PM_2.5, PM₁₀), NO_x, SO₂, CO and VOCs
• Acid rain
• Ozone and its reactions
• Depletion of ozone layer
• Greenhouse effect and global warming
• Role of green chemistry in minimizing pollution
• Water pollutants: inorganic, organic and biological
• Soil pollution: pesticides, heavy metals and industrial waste
• Emerging contaminants: microplastics, pharmaceutical residues and persistent organic pollutants
• Gamma irradiation for wastewater treatment
• Sterilization of sewage sludge

31. Applications of Radiation and Radioisotopes

• Basic principle of production of radioisotopes using accelerators: ¹⁸F and ¹²³I
• Basic principle of production of radioisotopes using nuclear reactors: ⁹⁹Mo, ⁶⁰Co and ¹³¹I
• Applications of radiation and radioisotopes in research
• Applications in food security
• Applications in water resource management
• Applications in healthcare
• Applications in industry
• Mutation
• Food preservation
• Sterilization
• Isotopes in imaging and therapy
• Application of radiation in material processing and troubleshooting in industry
• Determination of age of water