The effect of sucrose inversion on boiling point elevation

Since sucrose inversion doubles the total activity of the solutes in initially pure aqueous sucrose solutions, it is necessary to investigate its effect when studying their boiling point elevations. The inversion of sucrose solutions at their boiling points at atmospheric pressure was modelled and simulated using the equations of Vukov (1965). Results were obtained for reaction times of 1 hour, 5 hours, 10 hours and 24 hours, and were used to determine the effect of inversion on the boiling point elevation of the mixtures. It was found that the effect of sucrose inversion was slight, with the relative increase in boiling point elevation never exceeding 5%. This indicates that sucrose inversion in neutral solutions is of minor importance as far as the determination of the boiling point elevation is concerned, and that its effects may be neglected in most practical applications of BPE data in the sugar industry.