Electroreduction Sugars to Polyalcohols from Alkaline Aqueous Media on Mercury Electrodes

A polarographic investigation of direct electroreduction disaccharide and monosaccharide on DME to corresponding polyalcohols in alkaline acquous media is described. The experimental results show that the electrode process is controlled by the mixture control of charge transfer and kinetical steps with the adsorption of sugar to the surface of mercury electrode. A practically 100% yield in corresponding polyalcohols and 60%, 74% and 83% yield in current for lactose, glucose and fructose respectively are realized. Specially, the investigation results of electroreduction disaccharide are reported in this paper.The possible electroreduction mechanism of sugars is proposed.