Originally posted by chemguru:


However, there's no glycosidic center as there is with sucrose. I don't remember enough from OrgChem to remember which piece the H- would kick off... most likely kick the carboxyl group... though I don't know how that'd help the situation of a chemical leak...

--JamesT



Heh, I realized that shortly after! Good catch! Yeah, the carboxyl H should be deprotonated first, but as you stated, it really doesn't amount to anything significant.


Originally posted by mrspindlelegs:


If you add concentrated (> 92% active in water) sulfuric acid to sugars such as glucose, sucrose, and dextrose, the sugar dehydrates significantly and swells into a blackened chunk of carbon (see link)

Hydrochloric acid cannot do this because you cannot increase the concentration significantly above 37% active in water. The sugar cannot dehydrate effectively in the presence of a lot of water.

Mr. Spindlelegs



Excellent point Mr. Spindlelegs. Hydrocholoric acid wouldn't be hydrated in that reaction. As I expected it would form Carbon/graphite, but I didn't realize HCl wouldn't do so, rather it is H2S04/Sulfuric acid. Good stuff!

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