The Potential of Clamshell (Anadara granosa) as a Source of Calcium Oxide (CaO) in Hydroxyapatite Synthesis

Hydroxyapatite is one of the candidate medical materials as bone and tooth replacement (implant). In this study, the synthesis and characterisation of hydroxyapatite from clamshells (Anadara granosa) with variations in sintering resistance time were successfully carried out. The purpose of this research is to synthesise hydroxyapatite from clamshells and find out how the effect of variations in sintering resistance time on crystal size and degree of crystallinity of hydroxyapatite. The source of calcium oxide (CaO) used in the synthesis of hydroxyapatite comes from blood cockle shells powder (Anadara granosa), after first the blood cockle shells is calcined at 1000⁰C with a holding time of 5 hours. The hydroxyapatite synthesis process uses a solid state reaction method with a sintering temperature of 900⁰C with a variation of holding time of 2 hours, 4 hours and 6 hours to determine the formation of hydroxyapatite. This process has successfully formed calcium oxide (CaO) compounds based on characterisation with XRF (X-Ray Fluorosence) and XRD (X-Ray Diffractometer). Based on the XRD test results, it is known that hydroxyapatite has been successfully synthesized from clamshells. The characterisation results show that the variation of sintering resistance time affects the degree of crystallinity and crystal size of hydroxyapatite, which are 45.70% - 68.49% and 49.9nm - 55.37 nm, respectively.