Aptical Activity Optical Activity in Karo Syrup A molecule whose mirror image is nonsuperimposable is called a chiral molecule and exhibits optical activity.
Optical activity is the rotation of the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light.
Sugars such as sucrose, fructose, and maltose are familiar examples of materials which exhibit optical activity. Corn syrup is a mixture of various sugars and has a reasonably large specific rotation which makes it an ideal material to use as a demonstration of optical activity. A HeNe laser was used as the coherent, linearly polarized light source. To ensure maximum linear polarization of the laser beam, a polarizer was placed between the laser and the tube. As the beam propagates through the corn syrup, the scattered light is observed at right angles with respect to the direction of propagation.