Preparation and characterization of a novel bone graft composite containing bone ash and egg shell powder

Egg shells which were hitherto discarded as wastes were collected, purified and powdered into a particle size in the range of 5-50 mu m. A composite bone graft material in cylindrical form was prepared using egg shell powder (ESP), bone ash (BA) and gelatin. These bone grafts were characterized for their FT-IR, TGA, XRD, SEM and mechanical properties. The mechanical studies indicate that the composite having a stoichiometric ratio of BA (3 g) and ESP (7 g) has shown better mechanical properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data indicated the crystallographic nature of BA is akin to hydroxyapatite (HA) and both BA and ESP did not lose their crystalline nature when bone grafts were prepared. This revealed that ESP may be used as a component in bone graft utilizing the solid waste from the poultry industry.