ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Sorption properties of sheep wool irradiated by accelerated electron beam

Zuzana Hanzlíková, Jana Braniša, Peter Hybler, Ivana Šprinclová, Klaudia Jomová, and Mária Porubská

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia

E-mail: mporubska@ukf.sk

Abstract: Electron beam (EB) irradiated wool was examined for sorption of chromic ions. Sorption increased with the adsorbed dose non-monotonously, which is a result of the generation of S-oxidized groups, secondary structure variation, and the breaking of the keratin backbone. For a dose of 400 kGy, an increase by 120 % was observed at the cystine dioxide and cysteine acid amounts. Examining sorption of unexposed wool and that irradiated with doses of 25 kGy and 40 kGy for basic, methylene blue (MB), or acidic, pyrogallol red (PR) dyes revealed that such low doses have no effect on the carboxylic or amino groups of keratin. Sorption of MB is independent of the EB treatment and is identical for both samples due to the interaction of MB amino groups with the carboxylic groups of wool; however, the sorption capacity for PR is a function of the EB treatment. The sample irradiated with the dose of 25 kGy showed higher PR sorption than that with the EB dose of 40 kGy, which was equal to that of unexposed wool. While the 25 kGy sample provided more active sites for PR interaction compared with the unexposed one, the 40 kGy sample contained already enough active sites to generate intra- and intermolecular interactions inside wool. Thus, PR adherence to the 40 kGy sample was restricted and comparable to the level of unexposed wool.

Keywords: wool – electron beam – sorption – Cr3+ – methylene blue – pyrogallol red

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1515/chempap-2016-0062

Chemical Papers 70 (9) 1299–1308 (2016)