Question

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

Answer 1

Both acidic (carboxyl) as well as basic (amino) groups are present in the same molecule of amino acids. In aqueous solutions, the carboxyl group can lose a proton and the amino group can accept a proton, thus giving rise to a dipolar ion known as a zwitter ion.

Due to this dipolar behaviour, they have strong electrostatic interactions within them and with water. But halo-acids do not exhibit such dipolar behaviour.

For this reason, the melting points and the solubility of amino acids in water is higher than those of the corresponding halo-acids.