Rusty Hinge
wibbled on Wednesday 07 April 2010 17:51

Tim Watts wrote:

Oh - so not so much that it is an acid, more that it rips the H2O out of
anything it touches - remember the chem lesson experiment with conc H2SO4
+ sugar?

Ding!

Not one we did, but I'd expect it to reduce sugar (sucrose - C12H22O11)
to carbon.

C12H22O11 + H2SO4 - 12.C + H2SO4/11H2O


That's it! Lots of steam and a pile of foamy graphite left which curously
extrudes from the glass beaker like an oversized indoor firework...

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.