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If I was doing an experiment on crystallization, and I wanted to add an acid to cause the sucrose to break apart, the crystallization wouldn't occur, right? Because it causes there to be different molecules in the solution and they won't bond together, therefore, there would not be any crystallization. I am doing an experiment for class and want to know, if I added an acid, for example lemon juice, what would happen? Would it be a good experiment? Thank you for even taking the time to read my question. Have a great day!
Question Date: 2016-03-20
Answer 1:

No, crystallization will not occur if you add lemon juice. But this has less to do with the presence of acid than the solvent that comes with the acid: even if you just add water, sucrose will dissolve in it (the acid would just speed up the dissolution process). You have a good point, though--you're not guaranteed (or even not likely) to form crystals if you start adding other compounds into your system.

As for setting up your experiment, yes, you could test the effects of adding other compounds to sucrose crystals, but you may be disappointed by the lack of variety in the answers (probably any solvent will destroy the crystals). How about running a test to find out how to make the best crystals? A common way to form crystals from a solution is by removing the solvent, either by changing the temperature (ex. cooling) or by changing the concentration (ex. evaporation, or adding more solute).


Answer 2:

This experiment isn't going to work because (1) sucrose needs water to break apart, not just acid, and (2) even if sucrose did break apart, you would be left with glucose (which sucrose is made of), which also crystallizes.

Also, lemon juice is acid because it contains citric acid and ascorbic acid, both of which also form crystals if you dry them out.



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