2.5. UV Absorbance of Amino Acids

It is notable that proteins primarily absorb UV light due to the presence of tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine residues, with absorbance-maximizing wavelengths listed in the table below.[BPC+19]

Table 2.1 Amino Acid UV Absorbance

Amino Acid	Absorbance-maximizing Wavelength
tryptophan	280 nm
tyrosine	275 nm
phenylalanine	258 nm

It is also known that we can compute UV absorbance spectra of relatively small molecules like amino acids using computational chemistry programs such as PySCF.

However, there exists no simple analytic model for UV absorbance spectra.

Note

This section is planned.