All but one of the following is a component of nucleic acids. nucleic acids do not contain a) phosphates. b) amino acids. c) ribose sugars. eliminate d) nitrogenous bases

The best answer is B.

Nucleic acids do not contain amino acids.  Nucleic acids are composed of nucleotides. Nucleotides are the building blocks of both DNA and RNA.

Nucleotides have a distinctive structure composed of three essential components which are covalently linked together.

1. Nitrogenous base which is either a pyrimidine (one ring) or a purine (two rings)

2. A five - carbon sugar  which is either ribose or deoxyribose.

3.  A phosphate group. 

DNA has deoxyribose sugar while RNA has ribose sugar.