Electrical neutralization ability of polyaluminum chloride (PACl) coagulants with different OH–/Al3+ ratios by fluorescence quenching effect

The electrical neutralization ability of polyaluminum chlorides (PACls) with respect to humic acid was investigated by the fluorescence quenching method. The Stern–Volmer constant (Kq) at various pH and coagulation doses was determined for polyaluminum chlorides (PACl-B) of various basicities (B, B = [OH–]/[Al]). The experimental results show that under acidic conditions, the order of Kqvalues of PACl-B is PACl-2.5 > PACl-2.3 > PACl-1.5 > AlCl3. In solutions of pH = 7, the order of Kqvalues is PACl-1.5 > PACl-2.3 > PACl-2.5 > AlCl3. When pH > 7, aluminum ions are rapidly hydrolyzed, thus PACls of various basicities generally do not show capacity for electrical neutralization with humic acid. At pH = 6, all PACls-B obtain the maximum Kq values, indicating that humic acid and PACl-Bcoagulation process is less affected by H+ or OH– ions, and produces the best electrical neutralization ability. Compared to the past method of using surface potential as a means of determining the ability of neutralization of coagulation, the results of this study show that the Kq value of the quenching effect can reduce the experiment complexity.