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Grade 11Physical Chemistry

The melting points and solubility in water of amino acids are generally higher than that of the corresponding halo acids. Explain.

Profile image of Jayant Kumar
12 Years agoGrade 11
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1 Answer

Profile image of Suraj Prasad
11 Years ago
Amino acids have two functional groups -NH2 and -COOH.Hence the amino acids exists as a dipolar ion (or) zwitter ion.As a result strong eletrostatic forces exists between zwitter ions.hence amino acids have high melting & boiling points.
H2N-CH(R)-COOH <--------------> +H3N-CH(R)-COO-
amino acid zwitter ion