Determination of the* molecular weight of amino acids Idea

Instead of amino acid has both carboxylic group and * amino group ;it can not be estimated directly by Acid ?bas titration ,Give Acount because the amino acid is present as zwitter ion in its solution, Zwitter ion has not free carboxylic group to react with base(NaOH) and has not free amino group to react with acid Sorenson discovered that amino acid react with * formalaldhyde (formaline)giving formyl amino acid that has free carboxylic group can react with base as NaOH

Procedures
Dissolve 1gram of(unknown M.wt.)in100 distill -1* (water in a measuring flask(100 Neuttralize 20ml formaline (in conical flask) by -2* NaOH in(burette)in the presence of Ph.Ph. as ?indicator.GIVE ACOUNT

to neutralize the formic acid that may presenting Formaline as a result of the oxidation of formaline by air oxygen where formic acid may consume NaOH solution which cause an error in estimation

in conical flasic,place10ml amino acid solution -3* (step1)and 5mlNeutrilized formaline(step2)and 2 drops Ph.P.,then titrate against NaOH 0.1N

Calculations
(WT=(N*V)NaOH*(eq.wt/1000)*(100/10
eq.wt.=((Wt of amino acid )*100)/(N*V)NaOH

M.wt./n=
N=no.of carboxylic group in the amino acid=is known (for our (work n=1

(M..WT of amino acid=(eq.wt.)*(n

Application
This method(Sorenson method)can facilitate protein analysis, where it can determine the amino acids forming the protein after protein hydrolysis and separation of hydrolysis product(amino acid forming the protein)followed by determining the M.WT. of each separated amino acid, where each amino acid has its .characteristic M.WT