How does Benedict's solution change colour?

1 Answer
Manish Bhardwaj · mrpauller.weebly.com
Aug 3, 2014

Benedict's reagent (also called Benedict's solution or Benedict's test) is a reagent used as a test for the presence of mono saccharides (such as glucose and fructose); it is also used for some disaccharides like maltose, or more generally for the presence of aldehydes, in a solution.

This video show Benedict's solution being used to test for the presence of sugar in solution.

Benedict's solution, deep-blue alkaline solution used to test for the presence of the aldehyde functional group, −CHO. The substance to be tested is heated with Benedict's solution; formation of a brick-red precipitate indicates presence of the aldehyde group.

Benedict's reagent contains blue copper(II) ions #Cu^(2+)# which are reduced to copper(I) ions #Cu^(+)#. These are precipitated as red copper(I) oxide which is insoluble in water.In this process aldehyde group is oxidized to Carboxylic acid.

Related questions
See all questions in Solutions
Impact of this question
41752 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License