The treatment of wastewater containing heavy metals and the utilization of wool waste are very important for the sustainable development of textile mills. In this study, the wool keratin modified magnetite (Fe₃O₄) powders were fabricated by using wool waste via a co-precipitation technique for removal of Cu²⁺ ions from aqueous solutions. The morphology, chemical compositions, crystal structure, microstructure, magnetism properties, organic content, and specific surface area of as-fabricated powders were systematically characterized by various techniques including field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analyzer. The effects of experimental parameters such as the volume of wool keratin hydrolysate, the dosage of powder, the initial Cu²⁺ ion concentration, and the pH value of solution on the adsorption capacity of Cu²⁺ ions by the powders were examined. The experimental results indicated that the Cu²⁺ ion adsorption performance of the wool keratin modified Fe₃O₄ powders exhibited much better than that of the chitosan modified ones with a maximum Cu²⁺ adsorption capacity of 27.4 mg/g under favorable conditions (0.05 g powders; 50 mL of 40 mg/L CuSO₄; pH 5; temperature 293 K). The high adsorption capacity towards Cu²⁺ ions on the wool keratin modified Fe₃O₄ powders was primarily because of the strong surface complexation of –COOH and –NH₂ functional groups of wool keratins with Cu²⁺ ions. The Cu²⁺ ion adsorption process on the wool keratin modified Fe₃O₄ powders followed the Temkin adsorption isotherm model and the intraparticle diffusion and pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetic models. After Cu²⁺ ion removal, the wool keratin modified Fe₃O₄ powders were easily separated using a magnet from aqueous solution and efficiently regenerated using 0.5 M ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)-H₂SO₄ eluting. The wool keratin modified Fe₃O₄ powders possessed good regenerative performance after five cycles. This study provided a feasible way to utilize waste wool textiles for preparing magnetic biomass-based adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions.

In this study, a special core–shell structured wool-TiO₂ (WT) hybrid composite powder also having TiO₂ nanoparticles incorporated inside cortical cells was reported. The wool pallets were pulverized from wool fibers using vibration-assisted ball milling technique and the WT powders having mesopores and macropores were produced in hydrothermal process. Experimental results indicated that the infiltrated TiO₂ nanoparticles were amorphous structure, while the coated TiO₂ nanoparticles were anatase phase structure. The crystallized TiO₂ nanoparticles were grafted with wool pallets by the N−Ti⁴⁺/S−Ti⁴⁺/O−Ti⁴⁺ bonds. The BET surface area was measured as 153.5 m²/g and the particle sizes were in the 600–3600 nm and 4000–6500 nm ranges. The main reactive radical species of the WT powders were holes, and •O₂⁻, ¹O₂, and •OH were also involved in the photodegradation of MB dye under visible light irradiation. The experimental parameters for photodegradation of MB dye solution were optimized as follows: 0.25 g/L of WT powders was added in 40 mL of 3 mg/L MB dye solution containing 50 mL/L H₂O₂, which resulted in the increases of COD value of degraded MB dye solution up to 916.9 mg/L at 120 min. The WT powders could be used for repeatedly photodegradation of both anionic and cationic dyes.