In: Chemistry
Write a couple of sentences describing how glucose pentaacetate is a eutectic
Glucose pentaacetate exist in two forms -
and
forms. Despite the same interactions and dynamics possible for
each anomer, the mixture of the two exhibit different properties.
This is because they form a eutectic mixture. Eutectic mixtures
crystallize at a temperature lower than each of the both
components. This is observed in case of glucose pentaacetate also.
One main reason for this can be configurational entropy.In case of
the eutectic mixture, there are two types of molecules present and
this results in an increased amount of possible configurations than
each one taken separately. Thus the mixture is chracterised by an
increase in entropy and thus this leads to a slower crystallization
rate and thus results in a eutectic i.e., crystallization occurs at
a lower temperature than the individual components taken alone.