UPSC Civil Services (Mains)

1. 1
   Delocalised covalent bonding

   Aromaticity, anti-aromaticity; annulenes, azulenes, tropolones, fulvenes, sydnones.

2. 2 (i)
   Reaction mechanisms

   General methods (both kinetic and non-kinetic) of study of mechanism of organic reactions: isotopic method, cross-over experiment, intermediate trapping, stereochemistry; energy of activation; thermodynamic control and kinetic control of reactions.

3. 2 (ii)
   Reactive intermediates

   Generation, geometry, stability and reactions of carbonium ions and carbanions, free radicals, carbenes, benzynes and nitrenes.

4. 2 (iii)
   Substitution reactions

   SN1, SN2 and SNi mechanisms; neighbouring group participation; electrophilic and nucleophilic reactions of aromatic compounds including heterocyclic compounds: pyrrole, furan, thiophene and indole.

5. 2 (iv)
   Elimination reactions

   E1, E2 and E1cb mechanisms; orientation in E2 reactions: Saytzeff and Hofmann; pyrolytic syn elimination: acetate pyrolysis, Chugaev and Cope eliminations.

6. 2 (v)
   Addition reactions

   Electrophilic addition to C=C and C≡C; nucleophilic addition to C=O, C≡N, conjugated olefins and carbonyls.

7. 2 (vi)
   Reactions and rearrangements

   (a) Pinacol-pinacolone, Hofmann, Beckmann, Baeyer-Villiger, Favorskii, Fries, Claisen, Cope, Stevens and Wagner-Meerwein rearrangements. (b) Aldol condensation, Claisen condensation, Dieckmann, Perkin, Knoevenagel, Wittig, Clemmensen, Wolff-Kishner, Cannizzaro and von Richter reactions; Stobbe, benzoin and acyloin condensations; Fischer indole synthesis, Skraup synthesis, Bischler-Napieralski, Sandmeyer, Reimer-Tiemann and Reformatsky reactions.

8. 3
   Pericyclic reactions

   Classification and examples; Woodward-Hoffmann rules: electrocyclic reactions, cycloaddition reactions [2+2 and 4+2] and sigmatropic shifts [1, 3; 3, 3 and 1, 5], FMO approach.

9. 4 (i)
   Preparation and properties of polymers

   Organic polymers: polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, teflon, nylon, terylene, synthetic and natural rubber.

10. 4 (ii)
    Biopolymers

    Structure of proteins, DNA and RNA.

11. 5
    Synthetic uses of reagents

    OsO₄, HIO₄, CrO₃, Pb(OAc)₄, SeO₂, NBS, B₂H₆, Na-liquid NH₃, LiAlH₄, NaBH₄, n-BuLi, MCPBA.

12. 6
    Photochemistry

    Photochemical reactions of simple organic compounds, excited and ground states, singlet and triplet states, Norrish Type I and Type II reactions.

13. 7
    Spectroscopy

    Principle and applications in structure elucidation: (i) Rotational: diatomic molecules; isotopic substitution and rotational constants. (ii) Vibrational: diatomic molecules, linear triatomic molecules, specific frequencies of functional groups in polyatomic molecules. (iii) Electronic: singlet and triplet states; n→π* and π→π* transitions; application to conjugated double bonds and conjugated carbonyls, Woodward-Fieser rules; charge transfer spectra. (iv) Nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR): basic principle; chemical shift and spin-spin interaction and coupling constants. (v) Mass spectrometry: parent peak, base peak, metastable peak, McLafferty rearrangement.

The wording follows the UPSC examination notification, with misprints corrected. Check the current notification on upsc.gov.in before your exam.