Interactions of mercury compounds with wool and related biopolymers.

Abstract

Mercury compounds, which constitute environmental health hazards, can be taken up by wool, and other keratins and their derivatives, and by other agricultural products and by-products. Wool can bind mercury to about half of its weight from concentrated mercuric chloride solutions and can quickly recover a substantial proportion from very low, but biologically important, concentrations in the parts-per-billion range. It binds both naturally occurring and manufactured inorganic and organic mercury compounds. Binding capacity can be further increased by chemical modification, binding efficiency, by nondestructive recovery. Factors that influence binding of mercury compounds to keratins are discussed.KeywordsMercuric ChlorideMercury CompoundMercuric AcetateMercaptoacetic AcidMercury UptakeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.