What are the chemical formula and chemical name of table sugar? Is table sugar ionic or covalent?
The correct answer and explanation is:
The chemical name of table sugar is sucrose, and its chemical formula is C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁.
Sucrose is a covalent compound, meaning that it is formed by the sharing of electrons between atoms rather than the transfer of electrons as in ionic compounds. The molecule consists of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms bonded together through covalent bonds. Sucrose is a disaccharide, which means it is made up of two monosaccharides: glucose and fructose. These monosaccharides are linked together through a glycosidic bond, a type of covalent bond, formed between the hydroxyl group (-OH) of one sugar molecule and the anomeric carbon of the other.
To break it down further, sucrose is a molecule composed of twelve carbon atoms, twenty-two hydrogen atoms, and eleven oxygen atoms. Each carbon atom is bonded to hydrogen atoms in a way that creates long chains or rings. These atoms share electrons to form bonds, making sucrose a covalent compound. Unlike ionic compounds, which are typically made of metals and nonmetals and dissolve in water to form charged ions, sucrose dissolves in water to form individual molecules, not ions.
Because of the covalent bonding in sucrose, it has relatively low electrical conductivity compared to ionic compounds. This is a typical characteristic of covalent compounds; they do not easily conduct electricity in the liquid state unless they are dissolved in water to form charged particles, which does not happen with sucrose.
In summary, the chemical name of table sugar is sucrose (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁), and it is a covalent compound due to the electron-sharing bonds between its atoms.