Levoglucosan (C₆H₁₀O₅) is an

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. Th ...

with a six-

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon ma ...

ring structure formed from the

pyrolysis The pyrolysis (or devolatilization) process is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures, often in an inert atmosphere. It involves a change of chemical composition. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements '' ...

of carbohydrates, such as

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human die ...

and

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wa ...

. As a result, levoglucosan is often used as a chemical tracer for

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bio ...

burning in atmospheric chemistry studies, particularly with respect to airborne particulate matter. Along with other tracers such as potassium, oxalate, and gaseous acetonitrile, levoglucosan has been shown to be highly correlated with regional fires. This is because the gas emitted by the pyrolysis of wood (biomass) contains significant amounts of levoglucosan. Levoglucosan has been described as "an unequivocal biomass burning tracer" in the context of forest and brush fires. But the anhydrosugar has only been found detectable in low temperature samples (150-350 °C), meaning that its value as an indicator for smoke from controlled biomass combustion in, for instance, modern domestic wood stoves which operate at temperatures above 500 °C, is "very doubtful". Levoglucosan is a marker for coal combustion as well as wood. The hydrolysis of levoglucosan generates the fermentable sugar

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...

. Levoglucosan can be utilized in the synthesis of chiral polymers such as unhydrolysable glucose polymers.

References

{{Reflist Monosaccharides Atmospheric chemistry Heterocyclic compounds with 2 rings Oxygen heterocycles Polyols