The Characteristics of Green Calcium Oxide Derived from Aquatic Materials

Thermogravimetric Analysis of three aquatic materials, i.e. cuttlebone, mussel shell and oyster shell, and other physicochemical characteristics were investigated. The highest decomposition rates of aquatic materials under two surrounding gases, i.e. oxygen and nitrogen, exhibited no significant difference for cuttlebone (3.6×10^-5-4.8×10^-5 mg s^-1 mg_initial^-1 at heating rate 5 °C/min and 11.8 ×10^-5 -12.5×10^-5 mg s^-1 mg_initial^-1 at heating rate 15 °C/min) and mussel shell (3.4×10^-5- 5.2×10^-5 mg s^-1 mg_initial^-1 at heating rate 5 °C/min and 11.9×10^-5 – 12.4×10^-5 mg s^-1 mg_initial^-1 at heating rate 15 °C/min), while oyster shell provided the higher decomposition rate under nitrogen surrounding gas (7.6×10^-4 mg s^-1 mg_initial^-1 at heat rate 5 °C/min and 21.53×10^-4 mg s^-1 mg_initial^-1 at heating rate 15 °C/min). This is probably because of the difference in their starting crystalline structures, i.e. aragonite (cuttlebone and mussel shell) and calcite (oyster shell). The cubic calcium oxides were prepared by calcination of three aquatic materials under oxygen and nitrogen surrounding gases at 5 °C/min ramping to 850 °C for 2 hours. All resulting calcium oxides obtained from oxygen atmosphere provided only cubic crystalline phases and the adsorption-desorption isotherms (IUPAC Type III), whereas the calcinations under nitrogen surrounding gas gave a presence of calcium hydroxide crystalline or hydroxyl- contaminate existing with cubic calcium oxide that influences on the strength and the number of carbon dioxide adsorption sites. The specific surface area of all resulting calcium oxides ranged from 0.1 – 1.5 m²/g and the average pore diameter was found in the range of 40-60 nm. The the number of basic sites belonging to CaO derived from Oyster shell or Cuttlebone were improved while firing under oxygen atmosphere. The suitable firing condition is at the low heating rate to develop porous materials.