CBSE Chemistry Class XII

About Class XII Course Syllabus

Session 2025-26

Rationale

Higher Secondary is the most crucial stage of school education because at this juncture specialized discipline based, content-oriented courses are introduced. Students reach this stage after 10 years of general education and opt for Chemistry with a purpose of pursuing their career in basic sciences or professional courses like medicine, engineering, technology and study courses in applied areas of science and technology at tertiary level. Therefore, there is a need to provide learners with sufficient conceptual background of Chemistry, which will make them competent to meet the challenges of academic and professional courses after the senior secondary stage.

The new and updated curriculum is based on disciplinary approach with rigour and depth taking care that the syllabus is not heavy and at the same time it is comparable to the international level. The knowledge related to the subject of Chemistry has undergone tremendous changes during the past one decade. Many new areas like synthetic materials, bio -molecules, natural resources, industrial chemistry are coming in a big way and deserve to be an integral part of chemistry syllabus at senior secondary stage. At international level, new formulations and nomenclature of elements and compounds, symbols and units of physical quantities floated by scientific bodies like IUPAC and CGPM are of immense importance and need to be incorporated in the updated syllabus. The revised syllabus takes care of all these aspects. Greater emphasis has been laid on use of new nomenclature, symbols and formulations, teaching of fundamental concepts, application of concepts in chemistry to industry/ technology, logical sequencing of units, removal of obsolete content and repetition, etc.

Objectives

The curriculum of Chemistry at Senior Secondary Stage aims to:

• promote understanding of basic facts and concepts in chemistry while retaining the excitement of chemistry.
• make students capable of studying chemistry in academic and professional courses (such as medicine, engineering, technology) at tertiary level.
• expose the students to various emerging new areas of chemistry and apprise them with their relevance in future studies and their application in various spheres of chemical sciences and technology.
• equip students to face various challenges related to health, nutrition, environment, population, weather, industries and agriculture.
• develop problem solving skills in students.
• expose the students to different processes used in industries and their technological applications.
• apprise students with interface of chemistry with other disciplines of science such as physics, biology, geology, engineering etc.
• acquaint students with different aspects of chemistry used in daily life.
• develop an interest in students to study chemistry as a discipline.
• integrate life skills and values in the context of chemistry.

CLASS XII (2025-26) (THEORY)

Time: 3 Hours

Marks: 70

S.No.	Title	No. of Periods	Marks
1	Solutions	10	7
2	Electrochemistry	12	9
3	Chemical Kinetics	10	7
4	d-and f-Block Elements	12	7
5	Coordination Compounds	12	7
6	Haloalkanes and Haloarenes	10	6
7	Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers	10	6
8	Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids 10	10	8
9	Amines	10	6
10	Biomolecules	12	7
	Total		70

 

Unit II:

Solutions (10 Periods)

• Types of solutions, expression of concentration of solutions of solids in liquids, solubility of gases in liquids, solid solutions, Raoult's law, colligative properties - relative lowering of vapour pressure, elevation of boiling point, depression of freezing point, osmotic pressure, determination of molecular masses using colligative properties, abnormal molecular mass, Van't Hoff factor.

Unit III:

Electrochemistry (12 Periods)

• Redox reactions, EMF of a cell, standard electrode potential, Nernst equation and its application to chemical cells, Relation between Gibbs energy change and EMF of a cell, conductance in electrolytic solutions, specific and molar conductivity, variations of conductivity with concentration, Kohlrausch's Law, electrolysis and law of electrolysis (elementary idea), dry cell-electrolytic cells and Galvanic cells, lead accumulator, fuel cells, corrosion.

Unit IV:

Chemical Kinetics (10 Periods)

• Rate of a reaction (Average and instantaneous), factors affecting rate of reaction: concentration, temperature, catalyst; order and molecularity of a reaction, rate law and specific rate constant, integrated rate equations and half-life (only for zero and first order reactions), concept of collision theory (elementary idea, no mathematical treatment), activation energy, Arrhenius equation.

Unit VIII:

d and f Block Elements (12 Periods)

• General introduction, electronic configuration, occurrence and characteristics of transition metals, general trends in properties of the first row transition metals - metallic character, ionization enthalpy, oxidation states, ionic radii, colour, catalytic property, magnetic properties, interstitial compounds, alloy formation, preparation and properties of K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4.
• Lanthanoids Electronic configuration, oxidation states, chemical reactivity and lanthanoid contraction and its consequences.
• Actinoids - Electronic configuration, oxidation states and comparison with lanthanoids.

Unit IX:

Coordination Compounds (12 Periods)

• Coordination compounds - Introduction, ligands, coordination number, colour, magnetic properties and shapes, IUPAC nomenclature of mononuclear coordination compounds. Bonding, Werner's theory, VBT, and CFT; structure and stereoisomerism, importance of coordination compounds (in qualitative analysis, extraction of metals and biological system).

Unit X:

Haloalkanes and Haloarenes. (10 Periods)

• Haloalkanes: Nomenclature, nature of C-X bond, physical and chemical properties, optical rotation mechanism of substitution reactions.
• Haloarenes: Nature of C-X bond, substitution reactions (Directive influence of halogen in monosubstituted compounds only).
• Uses and environmental effects of - dichloromethane, trichloromethane, tetrachloromethane, iodoform, freons, DDT.

Unit XI:

Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers (10 Periods)

• Alcohols: Nomenclature, methods of preparation, physical and chemical properties (of primary alcohols only), identification of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols, mechanism of dehydration, uses with special reference to methanol and ethanol.
• Phenols: Nomenclature, methods of preparation, physical and chemical properties, acidic nature of phenol, electrophillic substitution reactions, uses of phenols.
• Ethers: Nomenclature, methods of preparation, physical and chemical properties, uses.

Unit XII:

Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids (10 Periods)

• Aldehydes and Ketones: Nomenclature, nature of carbonyl group, methods of preparation, physical and chemical properties, mechanism of nucleophilic addition, reactivity of alpha hydrogen in aldehydes, uses.
• Carboxylic Acids: Nomenclature, acidic nature, methods of preparation, physical and chemical properties; uses.

Unit XIII:

Amines (10 Periods)

• Amines: Nomenclature, classification, structure, methods of preparation, physical and chemical properties, uses, identification of primary, secondary and tertiary amines.
• Diazonium salts: Preparation, chemical reactions and importance in synthetic organic chemistry.

Unit XIV:

Biomolecules (12 Periods)

• Carbohydrates - Classification (aldoses and ketoses), monosaccahrides (glucose and fructose), D-L configuration oligosaccharides (sucrose, lactose, maltose), polysaccharides (starch, cellulose, glycogen); Importance of carbohydrates.
• Proteins -Elementary idea of - amino acids, peptide bond, polypeptides, proteins, structure of proteins - primary, secondary, tertiary structure and quaternary structures (qualitative idea only), denaturation of proteins; enzymes. Hormones - Elementary idea excluding structure.
• Vitamins - Classification and functions.
• Nucleic Acids: DNA and RNA.

CHEMISTRY (Code No. 043) QUESTION PAPER DESIGN CLASSES -XI and XII 2025-26

S	Domains	Total Marks	%
1	Remembering and Understanding: Exhibit memory of previously learned material by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers. Demonstrate understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions and stating main ideas.	28	40
2	Applying:Solve problems to new situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a different way.Solve problems to new situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a different way.	21	30
3	Analysing, Evaluating and Creating:Examine and break information into parts by identifying motives or causes. Make inferences and find evidence to support generalizations. Present and defend opinions by making judgments about information, validity of ideas or quality of work based on a set of criteria. Compile information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions.	21	30

 

1. No chapter wise weightage. Care to be taken to cover all the chapters.

2. Suitable internal variations may be made for generating various templates. Choice(s):

• There will be no overall choice in the question paper.
• However, 33% internal choices will be given in all the sections.