Will table sugar twist polarized light?

Question

I recently saw this awesome video by Steve Mould where he explained that a sugar solution in water will turn polarized light in the clockwise direction.
The explanation basically boils down to sugar molecules (glucose) having a handedness (they are chiral) and that linearly polarized light can be thought of as a superposition of circular polarized light in opposite directions which experience a different refractive index when interacting with the sugar solution.
Now to my question; If I want to replicate this experiment at home, will regular table sugar work, or do I need pure glucose, and if that is the case where can I get it?
Many thanks!
Edit 1: I will get back with the results I get from using table sugar when I have performed the experiment.
Edit 2: I did the experiment using half water half sugar, basically simple syrup, and the result was excellent. The optical rotation was very apparent.

Ruslan · Accepted Answer

Chemically, table sugar is sucrose, whose molecule is basically a unit of glucose and a unit of fructose connected together. To know the expected amount of rotation of polarization for a given substance, see the table of specific rotations.
In particular, for D-glucose specific rotation is $+52.7°,mathrm{dm}^{-1},mathrm{cm}^3,mathrm{g}^{-1}$, while for D-sucrose it's $+66.37°,mathrm{dm}^{-1},mathrm{cm}^3,mathrm{g}^{-1}$, which is actually even larger than that of D-glucose. So yes, you should be able to succeed with the experiment using table sugar instead of glucose.

Michael Seifert · Answer

I have successfully done this demonstration in my classes using table sugar.  I place a polarizer on an old-fashioned overhead projector, hold a crossed polarizer above it to block the light, and then insert a beaker of sugar solution between the two.  I usually use a solution of 1:1 sugar-to-water (by volume), basically a "simple syrup";  and I use a column depth of about 10 cm or so.
If I remember correctly, the transmitted light has a distinct bluish color when you do this, which I assume is due to the frequency dependence of the specific rotation.

Brent Meeker · Answer

Yes, I helped my daughter do this demonstration for her sixth grade science project. She used plain table sugar and a laser pointer as the light source. Having a monochromatic source makes it a little clearer. If you have different color laser pointers it would be interesting to demonstrate wavelength dependence.

Answered by Brent Meeker on March 22, 2021

Will table sugar twist polarized light?

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