Elucidation of Sugars Structure through Periodic Acid Oxidation Cleavage

In this work the periodic acid was used to elucidate the structure of sugars. When a sugar is reacted with excess periodic acid attacks the vicinal diols in sugar (carbohydrates) and oxidizes these groups to form carbonyl compounds. Method was carried out by dissolving one mole of sugars in 50 ml of distilled water. Then excess periodic acid was added. The mixture was left for about an hour and titrated against 0.1M Na2CO3, solution instead of (thiosulfate method) using screen methyl orange as an indicator to determine excess periodic acid remains. One equivalent of periodic acid corresponds to one carbon-carbon bond cleavage. The results obtained, practical molar ratio of sugars to periodic acid and theoretical molar ratio of sugars to periodic acidwere found to be in good accordance with expected and were in agreement with these reported in the literature.