Crystal structure of β-d,l-fructose

The title compound, C6H12O6, was crystallized from an aqueous solution of equimolar mixture of d- and l-fructose (1,3,4,5,6-penta-hydroxy-hexan-2-one, arabino-hexulose or levu-lose), and it was confirmed that d-fructose (or l-fructose) formed β-pyran-ose with a (2) C 5 (or (5) C 2) conformation. In the crystal, two O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the hy-droxy groups at the C-1 and C-3 positions, and at the C-4 and C-5 positions connect homochiral mol-ecules into a column along the a axis. The columns are linked by other O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between d- and l-fructose mol-ecules, forming a three-dimensional network.