Abstract

In Brazil, a significant amount of tilapia carcass waste is produced every year. The aim of this study is to evaluate the recycling of tilapia carcass waste as an alternative calcium precursor to produce biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) powder via a wet chemical precipitation method in different HNO₃ concentrations. The synthesized powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, average crystallite size, and refinement by the Rietveld method for the quantification of crystalline phases. The experimental results indicated the formation of a BCP bioceramic with different amounts of β-calcium pyrophosphate (β-CPP) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), depending on the HNO₃ concentration. The new BCP powders showed an average crystallite size between 57.7 and 59.2 nm. Such a result suggests a possibility of friendly recycling of tilapia carcass waste for biomedical applications.

Keywords:
tilapia carcass waste; biphasic calcium phosphate; nanopowders; recycling