In Figure 22.3, compare the starting compound (glucose) and the final product (pyruvate).
a. Which is oxidized to a greater extent?

Question

In Figure 22.3, compare the starting compound (glucose) and the final product (pyruvate).

a. Which is oxidized to a greater extent?

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question says in the glycolysis pathway, glucose is the starting material and pyruvate is the final product is glucose oxidized greater than pyruvate. Option A says glucose is oxidized greater than pyruvate. Option B says pyruvate is oxidized greater than glucose. Option C says that glucose and pyruvate are oxidized equally and option D says cannot be determined. All right. So here to answer this question, we're going to have to compare the oxidation states of both glucose. End P it glucose has a molecular formula of C six H 1206 and pyruvate has a molecular formula of C three H 403. So, recall that oxidation is a process that involves the increase in the amount of oxygens and or a decrease in the amount of hydrogens within a given molecule. Now, here we can arrive at our conclusion, either by analyzing functional groups or calculating the oxidation states of the carbons in both glucose and pubic. Now we're going to do both. So here it's important to recognize that glucose contains an aldehyde functional group as well as several hydroxy groups or several alcohol groups. On the other hand, pyruvate has a carboxylate group as well as a carbonyl or keto group. It is specifically a keto. So from here, we can acknowledge the fact that pyruvate happens to have more carbon oxygen double bonds, it has two, whereas glucose only has one. So that already gives us a sense as to what our answer is going to be. But regardless, let's talk about oxidation states. Now oxidation state or an oxidation state is the hypothetical charge of a given atom. If all of its bonds with other atoms were completely ionic, instead of covalent. Now calculating the oxidation state of a given carbon is going to depend on what it is connected to. So for example, let's say I have a structure like. So the key thing here is to examine what atoms are directly connecting to the carbon atom that you're examining. So here bonds to other carbon atoms are not going to affect the oxidation state because there's no difference in electron negativity. However, bonds to atoms like hydrogen that are less electron are going to decrease the oxidation state by one. So if I have two hydrogens, in my example, each of those is going to reduce the oxidation state by one. However, here carbon is connecting to one oxygen and because oxygen is more electron than carbon, it's going to increase the oxidation state by one. So adding these individual additions and subtractions together, the overall oxidation state of this particular carbon is negative one in my example. And just to clarify, we had two hydrogens, one oxygen and one other carbon connecting to this example, carbon. So from here, let's talk about the oxidation states of our carbons in glucose versus pubic. So starting off with the carbon carbon of glucose, no a double bond between carbon and oxygen is treated as two separate bonds to oxygen atoms. So for the oxidation state of the aldehyde, to be precise, we have an increase in the oxidation state by two because of that double bond to oxygen. Now, at the same time, there's an in there's a decrease in the oxidation state by a factor of one because of that aldehyde hydrogen. So overall the oxidation state of the aldehyde carbon of glucose is positive one. So from here, we can specifically examine carbon number six of glucose, which has an alcohol. Specifically, it's a primary alcohol. So at that point, we have two bonds, two hydrogens which each decrease the oxidation state by one. And we have one bond to oxygen which increases the oxidation state by one. Adding this together equals an oxidation state of negative one for the primary alcohol carbon. So let's contrast this now to pyruvic starting off with our carboxylic. Now recall that the carboxylate has one carbon oxygen double bond and another carbon oxygen single bond. So that's three bonds to oxygen, each of which increase the oxidation state by one. This gives a total oxidation state of positive three. And lastly, we have our ketone or rather the, the carbon carbon of the ketone. So here this carbon carbon has a double bond to oxygen which increases the oxidation state by two. And it's connecting to two other carbons which don't affect the oxidation state. So that gives a total of positive two. So just by comparing the oxidation states of pyruvate versus glucose, we can see that the carbon atoms in pyruvate have greater oxidation states. Therefore, pyruvate is oxidized greater than glucose, which makes her answer option B in the multiple choice and there you have it. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.

In Figure 22.3, compare the starting compound (glucose) and the final product (pyruvate).
a. Which is oxidized to a greater extent?

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Oxidation and Reduction

Glycolysis

Energy Yield and Electron Carriers

In Figure 22.3, compare the starting compound (glucose) and the final product (pyruvate).a. Which is oxidized to a greater extent?

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Oxidation and Reduction

Glycolysis

Energy Yield and Electron Carriers

In Figure 22.3, compare the starting compound (glucose) and the final product (pyruvate).
a. Which is oxidized to a greater extent?