Final answer:
Amino acids in mixtures can be separated and analyzed through methods like tricine-SDS-PAGE for protein separation and the van Slyke method for determining nitrogen gas production from amino groups reacting with nitrous acid, allowing for the calculation of the percentage of specific amino acids in a sample.
Step-by-step explanation:
To analyze amino acids, mixtures can be separated by various methods, one of which is gel electrophoresis. SDS-PAGE (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis) is commonly used for separating proteins based on their molecular weight, while tricine-SDS-PAGE is preferred for smaller proteins and peptides in the range of 1 to 100 kDa.
The van Slyke method is another technique that analyzes amino acids by making use of the reaction between amino groups and nitrous acid to produce nitrogen gas. In a given scenario, if a biological sample containing glycine reacts and emits nitrogen gas, this can be measured to calculate the percentage of glycine in the original sample.
The process would involve first using the Ideal Gas Law to convert the volume of nitrogen gas produced to moles, then using the molar mass of glycine to calculate the mass of glycine that produced the gas, and finally comparing this to the total mass of the biological sample to determine the percentage composition of glycine.