The chemical formula of a compound indicates the number and type of atoms present in the compound.
The chemical formula for sucrose is .
The letters in the formula are the symbols for each element present in the compound. The symbol for each element can be found in the periodic table.
- C is the element symbol for carbon
- H is the element symbol for hydrogen
- O is the element symbol for oxygen
The subscripts in the formula indicate how many atoms of each element are present in the compound.
- There are 12 carbon (C) atoms, 22 hydrogen (H) atoms, and 11 oxygen (O) atoms.
The carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms are held together in the compound by covalent bonds. In a covalent bond, the electrons in the bond are shared between atoms.
Notice that sucrose has a very similar chemical formula to other sugar compounds such as glucose: .
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