Question 1

Glucose or sucrose are soluble in water but cyclohexane or benzene (simple six membered ring compounds) are insoluble in water. Explain.

Answer

For any compound to be water soluble, it should develop dipoles (partial negative and partial positive charges) at the two ends of compound. The development of charges results in the formation of hydrogen bond between the water molecule and the compound. The development of charges at two ends is due to the difference in the electronegativity between two atoms. The atom with higher electronegativity will acquire negative charge while the atom with lower electronegativity will acquire positive charge. A glucose molecule contains five –OH (highly electronegative) groups while a sucrose molecule contains eight −OH groups. Thus, glucose and sucrose undergo extensive H-bonding with water. Hence, these are soluble in water.

But cyclohexane and benzene do not contain −OH groups. They contain only carbon and hydrogen atoms, as a result the dipole developed is very weak in nature and hence the hydrogen bond formed is not strong. Hence, they cannot undergo H-bonding with water and thus are insoluble in water.

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