High-energy grinding of egg waste based on calcite and selected plants for the preparation of nanocrystalline minerals and environmental applications

High-energy milling is a mineral processing technique initially developed for the treatment of raw materials during mining activities. In the proposed project, it will be used to treat calcite mineral present in the eggshell waste in order to improve its adsorption capability against selected heavy metal ions and dyes from both model solutions and real wastewaters from the mining regions. Additionally, bio-based calcite and the organic residue will be used as active reactants in the synthesis to yield nanocrystalline minerals (sulfides, oxides and their composites) and as a catalyst for the selected organic reactions. Both adsorption and nanomaterials synthesis will be also performed with selected common plants as natural raw materials. Eggshell and selected plants will be also applied as reducing agents to yield Ag and AgCl nanoparticles. The application of the obtained products in the fields of photocatalysis, thermoelectrics and in biomedicine will be tested in collaboration with foreign partners.