Why is the state symbol for glucose, C6H12O6 aqueous when it doesn’t dissociate or form ions when dissolved in water?
February 20th, 2023
The state symbol for anything in aqueous solution is (aq).
State symbols represent the physical state of a substance. The common symbols are (s), (l), (g), and (aq).
(aq) means that the substance is dissolved in water.
We could represent the dissolving of NaCl in water as
NaCl(s) → NaCl(aq)
We know that NaCl dissociates into Na⁺ ions and Cl⁻ ions in aqueous solution. We can also write its dissolving as
NaCl(s) → Na⁺(aq) + Cl⁻(aq)
Glucose does not dissociate into ions. So we represent the dissolving of glucose in water as
C₆H₁₂O₆(s) → C₆H₁₂O₆(aq)