Question

Is glucose optically active?

Answer 1

1. Optically active: The compound that enables the rotation of the plane-polarized light is called optically active. In another word, we can say that a molecule shows the optical activity which has an achiral center. A molecule said to be achiral which have four different groups attached to it.
2. Glucose: Chemical formula of Glucose is ${\mathbf{C}}_{\mathbf{6}}{\mathbf{H}}_{\mathbf{12}}{\mathbf{O}}_{\mathbf{6}}$ .
3. Glucose is a Carbohydrate. Glucose has asymmetric carbon atoms containing four different groups
4. Glucose possesses two forms D-glucose and L-glucose these are mirror images of each other.
5. The structure of glucose is given as-

6. The light passes through the glucose it rotates the plane-polarized light because of asymmetric carbons present in glucose.

in the above structure of glucose, carbon number 2,3,4,5 are asymmetric carbon.

Hence, Glucose is optically active.