Ms. Kay Balloonawala rendered various molecules and materials in balloon forms.

February 27, 2021
α-D-Glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆)

color legend: carbon = red oxygen = orange hydrogen = yellow

Glucose is a monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is produced by plants through photosynthesis using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide and can be used by all living organisms as an energy and carbon source. This model illustrates alpha-D-glucose specifically, which is one of the sixteen aldohexose stereoisomers. This configuration is the most stable and therefore most common in biological systems. The glucose structure was accessed from the NIST Chemistry Webbook.

more galleries