Falejczyk
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Haemoglobin extraction help
This is my first time posting on this forum, even though I have been viewing it for a while now.
Does anyone here know how I could go about extracting haemoglobin from blood, then how to extract the iron from the haemoglobin? Any help is
appreciated!
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fledarmus
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There is a simple method for extracting hemoglobin here, that was intended as a teaching lab project:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed050p347
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Falejczyk
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Thanks! Any ideas for extracting the iron? I was thinking trying maybe conversion to iron(III) Chloride, then an extraction of that from the solution.
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Falejczyk
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That is, removing the iron from the oxyhaemoglobin.
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Nicodem
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Thread Moved
9-9-2011 at 10:57 |
fledarmus
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I would think the easiest way was just to burn it. Iron oxide should remain in the ash, while the protein would disappear as carbon dioxide and water,
with traces of NO2 and SO3.
Or were you trying to keep the hemoglobin and remove the iron?
[Edited on 9-9-2011 by fledarmus]
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Falejczyk
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That seems like it would work. From there, a magnet could be used to get the iron oxide out and then reduced to elemental iron. Thanks, all! I'll post
results when I finally get around to doing this.
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Nicodem
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Iron oxides are the only components of ashes obtained by complete burning of haemoglobin. There are no other metals in haemoglobin so there is nothing
to separate iron oxides from.
Is this supposed to be for some kind of morbid art project? If so, just get some pure iron powder (commercially available) and bullshit everyone that
this was derived from your blood. For artistic purposes it makes no difference if it is blood derived or not - the effect on the spectators is the
same. It is also not possible to determine the origin of an element without determining the exact impurity profile (and even then...). Otherwise, I
suppose you already checked the molar weight of haemoglobin? It is 24780 g/mol! At the optimal concentration of haemoglobin in the blood of 150 g/L,
this means one litre of blood contains only 6 mmol, which at 100% isolation, 0% losses of Fe during the burning and 100% yield in the reduction would
only give you about 340 mg iron. So make sure you don't display grams of iron or else somebody might not believe you it is blood derived - seeing you
alive.
…there is a human touch of the cultist “believer” in every theorist that he must struggle against as being
unworthy of the scientist. Some of the greatest men of science have publicly repudiated a theory which earlier they hotly defended. In this lies their
scientific temper, not in the scientific defense of the theory. - Weston La Barre (Ghost Dance, 1972)
Read the The ScienceMadness Guidelines!
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Falejczyk
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It's more just me being morbid and curious about how much iron i could extract from my own blood. The ultimate goal is to have enough to put in an
ampoule necklace, just as a curiousity. I do realize that getting that much could take years, decades even.
Would it be possible to do an ammonia reduction of the iron oxides to get elemental iron?
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Arthur Dent
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Ask Erik Lehnsherr, he knows how! 
Robert
--- Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. - Frank Zappa ---
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Otter
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Quote: Originally posted by Falejczyk  | It's more just me being morbid and curious about how much iron i could extract from my own blood. The ultimate goal is to have enough to put in an
ampoule necklace, just as a curiousity. I do realize that getting that much could take years, decades even.
Would it be possible to do an ammonia reduction of the iron oxides to get elemental iron? |
There's about 2.5g of iron in the gallon of blood people have in their bodies.
You'd have to pyrolyse a LOT of blood. 
*Otter sniffs the puddle.*
*Licks a tiny bit of it up.*
*Pukes out dinner.*
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Mixell
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Better donate that blood and ampule the corresponding amount of iron to remind yourself how many people you possibly saved 
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