Synthesis and characterization of calcium phosphate (tricalcium phosphate/calcium pyrophosphate) from snail shells (Achatina fulica)

Abstract

Snail (Achatina fulica) is one of the sources of duck fodder commonly used by local breeders to meet protein needs of poultry farms. However, its shells as a by-product are rarely used and just become waste. To overcome this problem, we try to utilize the waste to be used as a source of bioceramic. Snail shells contain a lot of calcium which can be used as a calcium precursor to make bioceramics. One of the bioceramics that has the potential are tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and calcium pyrophosphate (CPP). They are mostly used as material for bone regeneration. It has advantages in terms of biocompatibility and osteoinductivity. In this study, we synthesized and characterized calcium phosphate from snails by coprecipitation method. It was then analyzed using X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared (FTIR), energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis to see its characteristic. Based on XRF analysis, snail shell (raw material) contains 81.83% of calcium and calcium phosphate mixed bioceramics (TCP and CPP). Average crystal size is 17.00 nm. The surface shape of the formed particles was irregular, and also flux, sphere, and fracture shaped. Nevertheless, interfering compounds were still found, hence a further purification process needs to be conducted.