Question

Describe the action of the following reagent on glucose:

dil. Nitric acid.

Answer 1

When glucose is oxidized with diluted nitric acid, saccharic acid and dicarboxylic acid are produced. This suggests that glucose has a main alcoholic group (-CH2OH).

\[\begin{array}{cc}
\ce{CHO}\phantom{............}\ce{COOH}\phantom{..}\\
|\phantom{................}|\phantom{.......}\\
\ce{(CHOH)4}\ce{->[(O)][HNO3]}\ce{(CHOH)4}\\
|\phantom{................}|\phantom{.......}\\
\ce{\underset{Glucose}{CH2OH}}\phantom{.......}\ce{\underset{Saccharic acid}{COOH}}
\end{array}\]