The Phloroglucinol Assay makes use of this coloring reagent:
0.5g phloroglucinol + 100ml glacial acetic acid + 10ml conc. hydrochloric acid
The reaction involves the conversion of pentose into furfural by heating in the presence of HCl. Furfural reacts with phloroglucinol to form a colored complex.
What is the function of glacial acetic acid?
Please help. If you could provide references, it will be greatly appreciated.
Use of glacial acetic acid is for kinetic reasons as the dehydration will be faster than in aqueous HCl. It will also affect the solubility of your triphenylmethane dye that is formed making it easier to determine a positive result.
You may want to consider Bial's test (orcinol, aq. HCl, FeCl3) as an alternative that doesn't need glacial acetic acid.
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