Chemical species distribution and transformation in polyaluminum chemical solutions

The hydrolysis polymerization precipitation process of Al(III) was studied with pH titration method, and the prepared polyaluminum solutions were characterized by various experimental methods: acid depolymerization, timed complex-colorimetric procedure, ultrafiltration, X-ray diffraction and infrared absorption spectrum. The results showed that the chemical species transformation and distribution of Al(III) in the hydrolysis-polymerization process depended on B=(OH/Al) ratio, pH and other factors. By their structures, the chemical species can be divided into three categories of monomeric (Ala), polymeric (Alb), sol or gel precipitates (Alc) and the polymeric species may be further divided into three groups such as linear low polymer (Alb1), linear high polymer (Alb2) and high polymer with cyclic structure (Alb3). The nominal molecular weight of polymeric species obtained by ultrafiltration was about 1000-50000 and most of them failed into a range around 10000. A scheme for the chemical speciation model of Al(III) solution was suggested.