Extraction and Characterization of Natural Hydroxyapatite from Black Tilapia Fish Bone for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Hydroxyapatite is known as HAp, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, commonly used in orthopedics since it resembles the inorganic portion of human bone. Calcium, Ca and phosphorous, P are the main components of HAp, with Ca/P molar ratio of 1.67 capable of promoting bone growth. Large quantities of by-product waste from fisheries factories have a negative effect on the environment. Hence, this research was carried out to obtain biological natural HAp derived from fishery factory waste black tilapia fish bones. As a result, fish bone can be a low-cost source of HAp and important contributions in biomedical applications. To remove meat and other impurities, black tilapia fish bones were boiled at 100 °C followed by milling to produce a fine powder. The powder was calcined at 600 °C and 800 °C for 3 hours. Characterizations were done by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) for mineralogy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for morphology and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, EDX for element analysis. The XRD results showed the existence of derived HAp, which was consistent with standard HAp. The raw samples tended to have denser and less porous microstructures than calcined samples were shown in SEM results. EDX results showed the chemical composition of Ca and P with present of magnesium, Mg and sodium, Na as their traces elements. The samples' Ca/P molar ratio was found to be higher than the stoichiometric HAp, >1.67. Thus, the findings show that producing calcium and phosphorus from fishery wastes is a viable option for biomedical applications with the present of trace elements to help accelerates bone growth.