Purification, general with organic

Because of their zwitterionic nature, amino acids are generally soluble in water. Their solubility in organic solvents rises as the fat-soluble portion of the molecule increases. The likeliest impurities are traces of salts, heavy metal ions, proteins and other amino acids. Purification of these is usually easy, by recrystallisation from water or ethanol/water mixtures. The amino acid is dissolved in the boiling solvent, decolorised if necessary by boiling with Ig of acid-washed charcoal/lOOg amino acid, then filtered hot, chilled, and set aside for several hours to crystallise. The crystals are filtered off, washed with ethanol, then ether, and dried. 

The increased solubility of substituted phthalocyanines (vide infra) enables more common purifications as used for other organic compounds. Usually the purification is done by chromatography either on alumina or silica gel, but recrystallization and extraction procedures can also be used. In some cases, the methods used for unsubstituted phthalocyanines can also be practiced, although the increased molecular weight accompanied by a reduced thermal stability makes sublimation more difficult.97 98 However, for substituted phthalocyanines, the stability towards acid may be reduced97 and, therefore, purification by treatment with sulfuric acid cannot generally be recommended. 

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