Abstract
The characteristic of cationic polyelectrolyte adsorption on aluinosilicate particles in equilibrium and the flocculation behavior were investigated as functions of particle diameter, solid loading and polymer concentrations. The results are summerized as follows. (1) The amount of equilibrium polymer adsorption decreases with decreasing particle diameter, increasing equilibrium polymer concentration below the specified particle diameter, increasing solid loading and increasing added polymer concentration, so that the depletion flocculation occurs respectively at the specified values of the above factors. (2) The depletion flocculation occurs even in a silica stone system when the particle diameter becomes small. (3) The osmotic attraction of a polymer solution can operate over the large interparticle region from the calculation using the depletion model. (4) Plotting the amount of equilibrium polymer adsorption obtained from the above factors against the interparticle distance, a master curve is drawn. (5) Polymer adsorption depends on the interparticle region in a slurry associated with the effective polymer size, and flocculation depends on the interparticle region and on polymer concentration.
