• Question: By fatty acid do you mean amino acid?

    Asked by Butter_Udders to Sam on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Sam Briggs

      Sam Briggs answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Beniebabom,

      Really excellent question. No, a fatty acid is one that possess either a single or branched alkyl chain and an acidic carboxylate group. An amino acid is one that has an amine group and a carboxylic acid, they have various other groups as well.

      I use fatty acids as they have really interesting properties at certain concentrations. Due to their hydrophobic tails they don’t like being in water and so if there are enough of them they self assemble into sheets or spheres. These are known as fatty acid bilayers or micelles in the former and latter cases respectively.

      Hope that helps?

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