Question

How would the molecular (microscopic) level of salt and sugar look when dissolved in water?

Answer 1

The whole concept is of extent of solvation, it means we know that there are solutions which dissolve at full extent and some are having less solvation ability. Here we have sodium chloride and glucose ${C_6}{H_{12}}{O_6}$ that is sugar, both are opposite to each other hence the compound having ability to produce ions is more soluble in place of other.

Complete step-by-step answer: We have salt and sugar which we generally use in the kitchen so the question is asking what happens at microscopic level. We know that we just mix them in water individually but we don’t know the phenomenon which takes place to a smaller extent. There are two phenomena that take place, one is hydrolysis and the second is hydration. Both are different from each other. In case of hydrolysis bond will break while in case of hydration there will be just attachment of water molecules with the compound.
In case of sodium chloride $NaCl$ bond breaking takes place it means there hydrolysis takes place. As sodium ions and chloride ions formed after mixing they get attracted by water molecules. We can also say that when ionic salt dissolves in water the electrostatic bond between $N{a^ + }\,and\,C{l^ - }$ are broken and ion-dipole complexes with water molecule forms.
On the other hand we have sugar which is sucrose ${C_6}{H_{12}}{O_6}$ in sense of chemical language, in this case no bond are break but a strong solvation happens between polar hydroxyl groups and sugar molecule. You can understand solvation in this way that sugar molecules get surrounded by water molecules and make a sugar crystal.

Note: You can easily understand the phenomenon by the help of charge. If a species has a high positive charge and empty orbitals, it can easily accommodate the lone pair of electrons of water in the empty orbitals of it. It means it is carrying hydrolysis but when they don’t have an empty orbital for accommodation of lone pair compounds just solvated.