Eggshell waste is among the most abundant waste materials coming from food processing technologies. Despite the unique properties that both its components (eggshell, ES, and eggshell membrane, ESM) possess, it is very often discarded without further use. This review article aims to summarize the recent reports utilizing eggshell waste for very diverse purposes, stressing the need to use a mechanochemical approach to broaden its applications. The most studied field with regards to the potential use of eggshell waste is catalysis. Upon proper treatment, it can be used for turning waste oils into biodiesel and moreover, the catalytic effect of eggshell-based material in organic synthesis is also very beneficial. In inorganic chemistry, the eggshell membrane is very often used as a templating agent for nanoparticles production. Such composites are suitable for application in photocatalysis. These bionanocomposites are also capable of heavy metal ions reduction and can be also used for the ozonation process. The eggshell and its membrane are applicable in electrochemistry as well. Due to the high protein content and the presence of functional groups on the surface, ESM can be easily converted to a high-performance electrode material. Finally, both ES and ESM are suitable for medical applications, as the former can be used as an inexpensive Ca2+ source for the development of medications, particles for drug delivery, organic matrix/mineral nanocomposites as potential tissue scaffolds, food supplements and the latter for the treatment of joint diseases, in reparative medicine and vascular graft producing. For the majority of the above-mentioned applications, the pretreatment of the eggshell waste is necessary. Among other options, the mechanochemical pretreatment has found an inevitable place. Since the publication of the last review paper devoted to the mechanochemical treatment of eggshell waste, a few new works have appeared, which are reviewed here to underline the sustainable character of the proposed methodology. The mechanochemical treatment of eggshell is capable of producing the nanoscale material which can be further used for bioceramics synthesis, dehalogenation processes, wastewater treatment, preparation of hydrophobic filters, lithium-ion batteries, dental materials, and in the building industry as cement.

The methods of X ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and laser diffracto metry are employed to study the changes in the structure and phase transformations that accompany mechanical alloying of Si and 57 Fe used in an atomic ratio of 99 : 1. It is established that the process comprises the development of a nanocrystalline state of Si with crystallite sizes smaller than 10 nm; the formation of an amorphous phase of Si at particle surfaces and in near boundary distorted zones of interfaces in Si nanostruc ture; the penetration of 57 Fe atoms along grain boundaries; and the formation of Si-Fe clusters, the local environment of Fe atoms in which is typical of a deformed α FeSi 2 phase, with these clusters being located in the interfaces.

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The physical mechanisms of the deformation-induced structural transformations in molecular crystals, including morphological changes, amorphization and molecular polymorphous conversions in nano-dispersed bioinorganic compounds are discussed in this work. Integrated study using direct structural and structure-sensitive spectroscopic methods allowed obtaining the data on polymorphous transformations, taking place during mechanical activation in calcium gluconate monohydrate (CG). One of the possible reasons for lattice polymorphous transformations and amorphization, observed in the course of mechanical activation of low-symmetry molecular crystals, might be the spatial molecular isomerization. In this case, the disappearance of the translational invariance of the lattice is conditioned by the simultaneous coexistence of the reactants and reaction products, which have dierent stereoorganization of the molecular structure.

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