IX International Conference on Small Angle Scattering

J. Phys. IV France 03 (1993) C8-211-C8-218
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:1993841

Hydrolysis and flocculation : a structural approach through small-angle X-ray scattering

J.Y. BOTTERO¹, A. MASION¹, B.S. LARTIGES¹, F. THOMAS¹, D. TCHOUBAR² and M.A.V. AXELOS<sup>3

1</sup>  Laboratoire Environnement et Minéralurgie, UA 235 CNRS, ENSG, INPL, BP. 40, 54501 Vandoeuvre cedex, France
²  Centre de Recherche sur la Matière Divisée, UM 813 CNRS, Université d'Orléans, BP. 6703, 45067 Orléans cedex 02, France
³  Laboratoire de Physicochimie des Macromolécules, INRA, BP. 527, 44026 Nantes cedex 03, France

Abstract
The flocculation of silica by coagulation with hydrolyzed aluminum salt and the flocculation of aluminum salt in the presence of organic acids at pH 6.5 have been studied by using Small-Angle X-ray Scattering. The flocculation of silica at pH 4.5 by isolated Al₁₃ is very similar to its flocculation by nonhydrolyzable salt as Ca⁺⁺ ; the fractal dimension D_f of the flocs is 2.20. At pH 7.5, Al₁₃ is hydrolyzed and strongly aggregated through hydroxo bridges, and the structure of the flocs is that of Al₁₃ aggregates, i.e D_f = 1.7. The flocculation of aluminum in the presence of organics such as acetate, salicylate, lactate and oxalate (organics/Al = 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0) occurs at lower pH values than in the absence of organics. The SAXS curves display a crossover region in the Q-range 0.05 to 0.15 Å^-1, due to the presence of small, loose -Al-OH-Al-aggregates. The simulation of the outermost part of the SAXS curves shows that the organic ligands limit the Al hydrolysis at the stage of the monomers and small oligomers by competing with the OH^- ions. This charge screening results in high coordination numbers and in high density of the flocs ([MATH]).

© EDP Sciences 1993