Synthesis and Characterization of Nano-Crystallite Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) from Marine Mollusk Waste: Babylonia japonica, Oliva sayana, and Conasprella bermudensis.

Abstract

The study aims to synthesize nano-crystallite TSP using renewable, low-cost, waste marine mollusk from three different species such as Babylonia japonica, Oliva sayana, and Conasprella bermudensis. The molar ratio of phosphate to calcium in triple superphosphate [TSP, Ca(H₂PO₄)₂.H₂O] significantly impacts its properties and fertilizer performance, in this case, we kept the ratio to 2. Raw TSP has a high phosphate content and lower calcium content. The synthesized TSP was analyzed using various techniques including TGA, XRD, EDX, FT-IR, and SEM. The study utilized multiple XRD model equations to analyze crystallite size ( $<100nm$ ), with all models except the Liner straight-line method providing higher estimates for synthesized TSP. Furthermore, the values for stress (2×10⁷ to 4×10⁷ N/m²), strain (4×10^-4 to 9×10^-4), as well as energy density (4.54×10³ to 16.27×10³ J/m³) were also calculated for the synthesized product. However, the preferential growth calculation indicates that (010), (021), and (020) planes are the most thermodynamically stable planes for the growth of the synthesized TSP. Apart from that, FTIR result confirms that CaO, -OH, as well as PO₄ ^3- functional groups are present in the synthesized products. This research suggests that marine mollusks can be utilized as a calcium precursor for P-fertilizer and 60 % phosphoric acid, thereby reducing production costs by eliminating additional dehydrating. Additionally, waste marine mollusk shells could be utilized as an alternative to the production of phosphate-based fertilizer.