CAPE Chemistry – UNIT 2 – Chemical Principles and Applications II

Module 1 – The Chemistry of Carbon Compounds Lecture Notes 18

Amino acids
General Information
1. Amino acids are compounds containing an amino group (-NH2) and a carboxylic acid group (-
COOH).
2. The biologically important amino acids have the amino group attached to the carbon atom that is
next to the –COOH group. These are known as 2-amino acids or alpha amino acids.
3. The general structure of amino acids is:

4. The simplest amino acid is glycine (2-aminoethanoic acid). It has the R-group as a hydrogen atom.

5. When the R-group is a methyl group (-CH3), 2-amino propanoic acid (alanine) is formed.

Physical Properties
1. Melting Points – Amino acids are crystalline solids with a high melting point. In amino acids there
is the internal transfer of a hydrogen ion from the –COOH group to the –NH2 group, to produce
an ion having both a positive and a negative charge, known as a zwitterion.

The zwitterion has no overall charge. This is the form that amino acids exists in even in the solid
state. This gives rise to strong ionic attractions between these zwitterions and this results in amino
acids having relatively high melting points for their size of the molecule.

Zwitterions can act as buffers in biological systems. They exhibit the ability to donate and accept
protons and are therefore amphoteric.

2. Solubility – amino acids are generally soluble in water and insoluble in non-polar solvents. This
is due to the presence of zwitterions. In water, the ionic attractions between the ions in the solid
amino acid are replaced by strong attractions between polar water molecules and the zwitterions.
The extent of solubility depends on the size of the R-group.