Interaction of Wool with Metal Cations

Abstract

A survey was carried out with the aid of X-ray fluorescence and atomic absorption spectroscopy on binding of various metal cations to wool from aqueous media. The results show that wool removes at a rapid rate a number of toxic and industrial metals. These include mercury, cadmium, zinc, antimony, bismuth, tin, lead, silver, platinum, palladium, and uranium cations. Because of its insolubility, wool facilitates anion and cation uptake analysis and is, therefore, a versatile model for protein-metal interaction studies.