wool, adsorption, heavy metals, surfactants

The paper deals with adsorption of lead and selected surfactants onto sheep wool and material obtained after sheep wool pyrolysis. Thermal analysis was performed for characterization of pyrolyzate surface and sheep wool. Lead adsorption on sheep wool and pyrolyzate was monitored at selected pH values ranging from 3 to 6. For the wool-lead adsorption system, the lead removal from solution ranged between 4.9 and 97.5 % in dependence of pH and initial concentration. The pyrolyzate - lead adsorption system showed a lead removal rate range of 5.5 - 94.8 %. In the case of lead ions adsorption a different adsorption mechanism can be expected. The lead ions preferably react with the carboxyl group of sheep wool keratin. The carbonaceous material, the pyrolyzate, is represented by the micropores, which are the site of immobilization of Pb2+ ions. Adsorption tests for surfactants were carried out without pH adjustment. The wool removed the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) from the solution in a range of 23.6 - 51.7 %, for the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant (CTAB) the removal interval was 85.5 - 98.4 %. The CTAB surfactant was removed from the solution with a pyrolyzate at a range of 46.4 - 85.6 %. The differences in adsorption capacities are probably due to the mutual force effect between the dissociated functional groups of the sheep wool carboxyl groups and the hydrophilic part of the surfactants.