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Muskan Thind

Formation of zwitterion from amino acids

Barbara S. Reeves  Follow

You can see as, by the cleavage of proton the carboxylate ion becomes resonance stabilized which provides high stability and also due to the character of amino group as a lewis base it will be easier to attract the proton loosen by the carboxylic group. So this type of reaction is proposed to explain the aspects such as high M.P.(Melting Point), B.P., etc. Because now it behaves as a salt( in the form of zwitter ion).

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Curt Weinstein  Follow

The reason amino acids exist largely in their zwitterionic form at biological $\mathrm{pH}$ (usually around 7) is due to the $\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a}$ of the constituent groups. It's not that the oxygen 'wants' to lose a proton, but more that at that $\mathrm{pH}$ the equilibrium lies towards the deprotonated state (things are rarely 100% protonated/deprotonated).

In general, carboxylic acids easily lose their proton to form carboxylates (the anionic charge is delocalised over the three atoms making the proton loss 'favourable'), and amines act as bases, to pick up a proton.

At a $\mathrm{pH}$ of 7, the medium is basic enough to cause the carboxylic acid to be deprotonated, and the amine to be protonated. If you look at the diagram below, you can see that increasing or decreasing the pecan shift the equilibrium towards fully protonated (at low $\mathrm{pH}$) or fully deprotonated (at high $\mathrm{pH}$) amino acid.

Zwitterion

Ionisation state of amino acids over 0-14 $\mathrm{pH}$ range, taken from Biochemistry, Berg (7 ed.)

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