[kevinp334]

Hi, I'm currently in my senior year of high school.
So at the moment, I'm working on a experimental investigation of the factors that affect the destruction of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and I'm having trouble understanding how sunlight breaks down ascorbic acid (C₆H₈O₆) to dehydroscorbic acid (C₆H₆O₆).
I've done some research and I came across something to do with free radicals, maybe a hydroxyl radical, however, I'm not fully comprehending it. Therefore, if anyone can explain this process to me, hopefully in a way that is easily understandable for a high school student, it would be greatly appreciated.

[kevinp334]

Upon further research I've come across something called photolysis, where exposure of chemical compounds to ultraviolet light can cause the photons to break the chemical down. So is this possible for ascorbic acid and if so, would the chemical equation for this reaction be:
C₆H₈O₆ + 2hv  2H⁺ + 2e^- + C₆H₆O₆?