Glucose: the chemical properties are standard

The simplest of sugars, the universal currency of energy exchange, which the brain prefers and respects the heart muscle. If a person's control mechanisms are violated, and the blood glucose level falls below a certain norm, there is a loss of consciousness and inevitable death. Diabetes mellitus as a pathology of the assimilation of this substance leads to a "famine amidst abundance." Therefore, food containing glucose should be treated with caution, not only for diabetics - the regulation systems for the exchange of sugars are complex.

It is closely studied in courses of organic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry and biochemistry. What is glucose? Its chemical properties stem from the structural features of the structure. They are twofold - it simultaneously has both an aldehyde group and a hydroxyl group, that is, in fact, is both an aldehyde and a polyhydric alcohol (since the groups of both the first and the second type are not alone in its composition).

It should start with aldehyde properties. Unlike fructose, glucose exhibits chemical properties in an aldose type - that is, it can safely carry out the reaction of a silver mirror. This is an unusually beautiful reaction, requiring clean reagents and equipment. At the same time, metal is obtained from the ammonia solution of silver bound in the complex. If everything was clean, then you get a beautiful smooth film, similar to a mirror, which caused the appearance of the name. But if something was not clean, it turns out loose clumps of gray mass, ugly and can introduce an inexperienced experimenter into error. So wash the test tubes properly!

What else is "able" glucose? The chemical properties of the aldehyde type are not exhausted only by the reaction of a silver mirror. Another very characteristic reaction is the hydrogenation, i.e. the addition of hydrogen to the aldehyde group in the presence of a nickel metal catalyst. In this case, sorbitol is formed. By the way, this is an industrial way of obtaining it, cheap and uncomplicated, however, the starting material is complex cornstarch, and not pure glucose, but the starch hydrolyzes to it.

At least two aldehyde properties have glucose. Chemical properties, proving the alcohol nature of this substance, also exist. For example, a qualitative reaction to the hydroxyl group. It is simple to add copper hydroxide to the test sample in an alkaline medium . In this case, if glucose is present, a precipitate of copper is not formed, but a saturated bright blue solution is obtained. This reaction is a proof of the alcohol properties of glucose.

But there is another interesting reaction, which is provoked by yeast and which almost everyone has come across. What does glucose do? Chemical properties are closely related to biology. Under the influence of enzymes, ethanol is formed, fungi destroy two compounds in each molecule, causing the formation of carbon dioxide. Such are the chemical properties of glucose. This creates a characteristic smell: just smell the yeast dough - and make sure that it really is enough ethanol.

Is glucose difficult? Its physical and chemical properties are quite predictable, based on their formulas, but the substance holds many mysteries: for example, the body's non-desirability of some forms.