This is the first study on production of three dimensional chitinous microcages from ephippial eggs of a microcrustacean, Daphnia longispina (water flea) by keeping the original shape of its chitinous structure. Iron-based magnetic particles were successfully loaded into the chitinous microcages to enhance its heavy metal sorption capacity. The FT-IR, SEM-EDX and TGA analysis proved the purity of chitin and demonstrated that the loading of magnetic particles into the chitinous microcages was achieved. These newly obtained three-dimensional chitin microcages and magnetic particles loaded microcages were tested in Cd(II), Cr(III), Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) removal from aqueous solutions. Magnetic particles loaded microcages exhibited a better performance in removal of Cd(II), Cu(II) and Ni(II) ions; while unloaded microcages showed a higher affinity for Cr(III) and Zn(II). This study demonstrated that the chitin microcages are suitable carriers for iron-based magnetic particles. Here these new materials were studied only for removal of five heavy metal ions but these promising materials have a potential to be used in various fields.

这是对由甲壳纲水蚤（Daphnia longispina）的表皮卵产生三维几丁质微笼的首次研究。（水蚤），保持其几丁质结构的原始形状。铁基磁性颗粒已成功加载到几丁质微笼中，以增强其对重金属的吸附能力。FT-IR，SEM-EDX和TGA分析证明了几丁质的纯度，并证明了将磁性颗粒装载到几丁质微笼中。这些新获得的三维甲壳质微笼和装有磁性颗粒的微笼在从水溶液中去除Cd（II），Cr（III），Cu（II），Ni（II）和Zn（II）的过程中进行了测试。装有磁性颗粒的微笼在去除Cd（II），Cu（II）和Ni（II）离子方面表现出更好的性能；而空载微笼对Cr（III）和Zn（II）具有更高的亲和力。这项研究表明，几丁质微笼是铁基磁性颗粒的合适载体。