MAGNETIC MOLECULES: PROCESS UTILIZING FUNCTIONALIZED MAGNETIC FERRITINS FOR THE SELECTIVE REMOVAL OF CONTAMINANTS FROM SOLUTION BY MAGNETIC FILTRATION

摘要

A decontamination system uses magnetic molecules having ferritin cores toselectively remove target contaminant ions from a solution. The magneticmolecule (101) is based upon a ferritin protein structure and has a centralcavity (103) which contains a very small magnetic ferritin core (105) and aselective ion exchange function such as a porphyrin (107) and/or a crown ether(109) attached to its surface. Various types of ion exchange functions can beattached to the magnetic molecules, each of which is designed to remove aspecific contaminant such as radioactive ions. The ion exchange functionsallow the magnetic molecules to selectively absorb the contaminant ions from asolution while being inert to other non-target ions. The magnetic propertiesof the magnetic molecule (101) allow the magnetic molecules and the absorbedcontaminant ions to be removed from solution by magnetic filtration.