Aerogel from eggshell for artificial bone

Abstract

Eggshell, bio waste, is mainly composed of calcium compound which can then be applied for bone application. Bone is a natural composite material, consisting of inorganic and organic materials. The inorganic part is calcium phosphate (Hydroxyapatite, Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂). In this work, the hydroxyapatite is synthesized from eggshell calcinated at 900ºC for 1 h and orthophophoric acid via sol gel process. The synthesized product is characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and electron microscopy (SEM). Calcium powder obtained from the calcinations of eggshell is 58.99±5.74 %. The powder is not only highly pure calcium oxide and hexagonal crystalline with small particle size about 4 -10 micron, but also provides good thermal stability. The synthesized hydroxyapatite is also nanocrystalline (about 30.852 nm), has high purity, and good thermal stability. Since polyvinyl alcohol is an organic material normally applied for artificial bone, in this work, a novel artificial bone is studied using the synthesized calcium compounds (hydroxyapatite and calcium oxide) and polyvinyl alcohol by aerogel fabrication technique via freeze-drying method to give calcium compound based aerogel, having bone-like structure. The aerogel samples were characterized properties by gas pycnometer, surface area analyzer (BET), SEM, FTIR, TGA, and universal testing machine (Compression)