Aromatic amino acids in high selectivity bismuth(III) recognition.

The three aromatic amino acids, tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine, play different physiological roles in life processes. Metal ions capable of binding these amino acids may aid in the reduction of effective concentration of these amino acids in any physiological system. Here we have studied the efficacy of some heavy metals for their complexation with these three amino acids. Bismuth has been found to bind selectively with these aromatic amino acids and this was confirmed using spectrofluorimetric, spectrophotometric and cyclic voltammetric studies. The series of heavy metals has been chosen because each of these metals remains associated with the others at very low concentration levels and Bi(III) is the least toxic amongst the other elements. So, selective recognition for Bi(III) would also mean no response for the other heavy elements if contaminants are present even at low concentration levels. The affinity towards these amino acids has been found to be in the order tryptophan < phenylalanine < tyrosine. The association constants of these amino acids have been calculated using Benesi-Hildebrand equations and the corresponding free energy change has also been calculated. The values of the association constants obtained from BH equations using absorbance values corroborate with the Stern-Volmer constants obtained from fluorimetric studies. The evidence for complexation is also supported by the results of cyclic voltammetry.