Studies in the oxidation of wheat starch with hypochlorous acid by McKillican and Purves suggested that 80 to 90% of the oxidation occurred on carbon no. 6 of the glucose monomer unit in the starch chain, leading to the hypothesis that hypochlorous acid at pH 4- 4.2 was somewhat selective in its attack on the starch molecule. In the present work, sucrose was chosen as the carbohydrate to be oxidized inasmuch as it is a non-reducing disaccharide having three primary hydroxyl groups available for oxidation. It was hoped that the information gained would be a suitable guide to the study of the oxidation of cellulose by hypochlorous acid at some future date.

Purves, Clifford B. (Supervisor)