title: Preparation and characterisation of new-polyaluminum chloride-chitosan composite coagulant.
abstract: In this study, the formulation of a novel polyaluminum chloride-chitosan composite coagulant that improves the coagulation process for natural organic matter (NOM) removal was investigated. The performance of the composite coagulant was tested using two water sources (synthetic and natural water) to develop a better understanding on the behaviour of the composite coagulant. Fourier Transform-Infra red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, ferron analysis and zeta potential studies were performed to characterise the composite coagulant. FT-IR analysis showed that there is an intermolecular interaction between Al species and chitosan molecules, while ferron analysis indicated that the distributions of Al(a), Al(b), and Al(c) in PACl-chitosan are different from those in PACl. At a low Al dosage (2.16 mg L⁻¹), a much higher removal of NOM from synthetic water, as evidenced from UV₂₅₄ and Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) measurements, was achieved by the composite coagulants in comparison to that removed by PACl or PACl and chitosan added separately. For natural water from the Myponga Reservoir, both polyaluminum chloride (PACl) and PACl-chitosan composite coagulants demonstrated similar dissolved organic carbon (DOC) percentage removal, whereas PACl-chitosan gave a slight improvement in removing the UV₂₅₄ absorbing components of NOM.
authors: ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors: Mega
authors: M
authors: Ng
authors: Ayu E
authors: AE
authors: Liana
authors: Sanly
authors: S
authors: Liu
authors: May
authors: M
authors: Lim
authors: Christopher W K
authors: CW
authors: Chow
authors: Dongsheng
authors: D
authors: Wang
authors: Mary
authors: M
authors: Drikas
authors: Rose
authors: R
authors: Amal
mesh_terms: D000536:Aluminum Hydroxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: C016213:aluminum oxychloride; D000536:Aluminum Hydroxide; D048271:Chitosan