Regular Article

Novel synthesis and characterization of crystalline fluorapatite from Moroccan phosphogypsum waste

¹ Laboratoire de Chimie Organique Bioorganique et Environnement, Faculté de Sciences, Université Chouaib Doukkali, El Jadida, Morocco
² École Supérieure de l’Éducation et de la Formation, Université Chouaib Doukkali, El Jadida, Morocco
³ Univ. Hassan I, Laboratoire de Chimie et Modélisation Mathématique, Faculté Polydisciplinaire, 25000 Khouribga, Morocco

^* e-mail: nasrellah205@yahoo.fr

Received: 12 October 2021
Accepted: 21 January 2022

Abstract

In the present study, phosphogypsum waste (PG) was utilized to synthesize fluorapatite (FAP) via a simple precipitation method. The FAP was prepared using a novel mixing technique with anhydrite obtained from PG and phosphoric acid solution in the presence of pure fluoride ammonium in a Teflon reactor. The characteristics of the prepared FAP were investigated with various methods including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy-Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The FAP derived from PG exhibited a hexagonal structure with a particle size ranging from 1.5 to 9 μm along with a high purity. FAP also showed an excellent Ca/P ratio equals to 1.67. These results proved that the FAP was successfully synthesized from phosphogypsum waste.