Preparing Polymerized Aluminum-Iron Chloride with Red Mud

Abstract

A new method is proposed for the preparation of polyaluminium ferric chloride (PAFC) with red mud. The dependence of pH of the PAFC on basicity, is discussed and the difference in the products of the process of red mud hydrolysis from products in the process of sodium hydroxide hydrolysis is studied. The results show that basicity increases with increasing pH, the preferred pH value is 3.5, and basicity is up to 85.55%. Comparing the appearance of PAFC with that of crystalline aluminium chloride, polyaluminium chloride by SEM, can indicate that the distribution of materials is not uniform on the surface of PAFC. Energy Dispersive analysis indicates that the content of aluminum, iron, and oxygen accounts for 60.73% in the white areas, 43.95% in the black areas in the process of red mud hydrolysis; whereas the content of aluminum, iron, and elements in the white areas is 49.74%, 23.45% in black areas in the product from sodium hydroxide hydrolysis.