Chemical and Phase Characterization of Snail Shell (Archachatina Marginata) as Bio-Waste from South-West in Nigeria for Industrial Applications

Abstract

This paper aimed at characterizing waste snail shells found in South-West, Nigeria for potential industrial applications. Snail shells which represent the bio-shell waste of snails' remnants from restaurants, eateries or snail sellers constitute a serious degree of environmental threat with little or no economic value; their effective utilization can bring immense economic prosperity. Snail shells were obtained from two selected region of South-Western part of Nigeria. The obtained snail sells were thoroughly washed to remove adhered dirt and later dried in an electric powered oven at 110 o C for 6h. The dried shells were then crushed and further pulverized to obtain powder snail shells (SS p ) and labeled samples SS p A and SS p B respectively. The chemical composition of the samples was determined by Energy dispersive X-ray (SEM/EDX) while the phase constituent was analyzed using X-ray diffractometer. The results showed that SS p A consist mainly calcium (Ca) 83.38% while sample SS p B contains higher calcium (Ca) content of 85.04%. However, X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicate predominant phase of calcite for the samples. This indicates that the snail shell powder is suitable for industrial applications such as filler in paper and ceramic industry. Keywords: Snail shell; chemical composition; phase constituent; calcite phase. DOI: 10.7176/CMR/12-6-03 Publication date: July 31 st 2020