Investigation on surface charasteristics of uncalcinated and calcinated mussel shells

Abstract

In recent years, developing economical adsorbents to treat with different types of pollutants has attracted great interest. Waste mussel shells are common wastes produced by the seafood industry. They have some advantages over conventional process such as simplicity of design and low cost. In this study, the uncalcinated and calcinated mussel shells were characterisated for their surface characteristics. Mussel shells washed with tap water several times followed by distilled water and dried at 105°C for 12 hours in an oven. They were powdered to small particles and calcined at 900°C for 2 hours. The sample was finely ground into small particles of different sizes, washed with distilled water and dried overnight at 105°C. And then, the sample was calcined at a heating rate of 2°C/min to 400°C and maintaned at this temperature for 4 hours.The calcined and uncalcined mussel shell samples were characterised by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and Zeta potential mesaurements. The results indicated that calcination studies improved the surface charasteristics of the mussel shells and that the calcinated mussel shells can be used in adsorption studies as a novel low-cost, eco-friendly biosorbent efficiently

Keywords: Adsorption, calcination, characterization, mussel shell.