Question

It's believed by many that a good way to vandalize a car is to pour sugar (sucrose) in its gas tank. the sugar is believed to dissolve in the gasoline, enter the gas lines and then "caramelize" into a gunky texture when combusted. if you wanted to test this theory casually, without jeopardizing anyone's car, which of the solvents used in the experiment would be the best to use?

Answer 1

Answer is: in this experiment it is best to use some liquid alkanes (for example hexane), because gasoline consists of hydrocarbons with between four and twenty carbon atoms. Gasoline is a mixture of many different hydrocarbons: alkanes (paraffins), cycloalkanes and alkenes (olefins).