Why is the empirical formula not double that of the monosaccharides?

1 Answer
anor277
Mar 28, 2018

Just to retire this question....

#"the empirical formula is the simplest whole ratio..."#

Explanation:

...#"the empirical formula is the simplest whole ratio"# #"that defines constituent elements in a species..."#

And so we got a monosaccharide, #C_nH_(2n)O_n#...and CLEARLY the empirical formula of this beast is #CH_2O# given the definition....

And a disaccharide results from the condensation reaction of two monosaccharides to the give the disaccharide and WATER....

#2C_nH_(2n)O_n rarr C_(2n)H_(2n-2)O_(n-1)+H_2O#

And to use the obvious example, we could take glucose, #C_6H_12O_6#, whose dissacharide is sucrose, #C_12H_22O_11#...

#C_12H_22O_11-={2xxC_6H_12O_6}-H_2O#

...i.e. we conceive that water is LOST in the condensation reaction...and the empirical formula must be altered to be the same as the molecular formula...

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