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. Mussel shells are abundant in the sea and cause waste. In this study, the uncalcinated and calcinated mussel shells were characterisated for their surface characteristics. Mussel shells washed with tap water and distilled water several times and dried for 12 hours in an oven. Then they were calcined at 900°C for 2 hours. The calcined sample was washed with distilled water and dried at 105°C. And then, the sample was calcined at 400°C with 2°C/min heating rate 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 low-cost, eco-friendly biosorbent efficiently.