Biosorption of precious metal ions by chicken feather

Chicken feather (C-feather) is an intricate network of stable and water-insoluble protein fibers with high surface area and is an abundant bioresource. C-feather protein was found to accumulate various precious metal ions (gold and platinum metals) selectively from their dilute aqueous solutions in high yield and in short contact time, depending on pH and characteristics of the individual precious metal ions. Under certain condition, the sequestering level of precious ions, Au(III), Pt(II), and Pd(II) approaches about 17, 13, and 7% of dry wt of C-feather, respectively. Gold(III) potassium cyanade was also accumulated up to 5.5% at pH 2.0. The presence of 100-fold (mol) of coexisting cations, such as Na⁺, Fe(III), Cu(II), and Ni(II), did not show a discernible effect on the precious metal uptake rate and capacity of C-feather. Experiment suggested C-feather is promising for use in the removal/recovery of precious metals as well as water pollution control. A qualitative discussion is given about the excellent adsorption behavior of C-feather.