[jmarjorie]

Dear All,

Will the following polyhydric alcohols undergo any reaction or be affected by the presence of 10% H2SO4 at 80 degrees Centigrade ?
My main concern is if dehydration / elimination takes place leading to the formation of an Alkene.

A )  CH2OH . C(CH3)OH . CHOH . CH2OH

B )  CH2OH . C(CH3)OH . CH2 . CH2 . CH2 . CH(CH3) . CHOH . CH2OH

[ I thought of carrying out the above reaction and testing with bromine water, but it may not be satisfactory as substitution of -OH group can occur.
Also, if at all elimination takes place the -Br adds onto the C = C.
In both cases decolorization of bromine water takes place and this test may be inconclusive. ]

[lavoisier]

The conditions you mention are not the most harsh possible, but I guess your alcohols are acid-sensitive to some extent.
Especially the tertiary hydroxyls with vicinal protons could suggest a possible dehydration, yielding enols (which would then tautomerize to carbonyl cpds).
If this is the case, of course you can't use bromine water for analysing them. The substitution of OH by Br2 (which I have never heard of, actually) wouldn't be the main issue.

I'm not sure, however, because in fact you can heat solutions of sucrose with aq. acids to get fructose and glucose.

It's probably a matter of concentrations and temperature. You can check previous literature for transformations involving your alcohols, to see if acidic conditions have yet been used.