Is sugar an Element, Compound or Mixture?

Sugar (table sugar) is a pure chemical compound, not an element or a mixture. It is sucrose, with the fixed chemical formula C12H22O11C12H22O11, made from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen bonded together in a definite ratio.

What sugar is?

• Common “sugar” refers to sucrose, a disaccharide composed of one glucose unit and one fructose unit joined by a glycosidic bond, and it occurs naturally in plants like sugar cane and sugar beet.
• Sucrose has the molecular formula C12H22O11C12H22O11, meaning exactly 12 carbons, 22 hydrogens, and 11 oxygens per molecule in a fixed proportion, which is the hallmark of a compound.

Why it’s not an element?

• An element consists of only one type of atom, such as carbon (C), hydrogen (H), or oxygen (O); sugar contains all three and therefore cannot be a single element.
• Because sucrose contains multiple elements chemically bonded, it falls outside the definition of an element by design.

Why it’s not a mixture>

• A mixture is a physical combination with variable composition that can be separated by physical methods, but sucrose has a definite, unchanging composition and its constituents are linked by covalent bonds, requiring chemical methods to break apart.
• The fixed 12:22:11 atom ratio and the glucose–fructose linkage show sucrose is a single molecular species, not a variable blend, distinguishing it clearly from mixtures.