Abstract
Conventional inorganic coagulants (Al, Fe) and Al/Fe-based covalently bonded flocculants (CAFMs) had different hydrolysis species at different pHs, which subsequently led to differences in their binding sites and complexation ability with humic acid (HA). Studying the binding sites and interactions between CAFMs, AlCl3 (Al), and FeCl3 (Fe) hydrolysates and HA molecules is critical to understanding the coagulation mechanism. The results found that CAFM 0.6, Al, and AlCl3 combined FeCl3 (Al/Fe) removed more than 90% of HA at pH 6, and CAFMs showed higher HA removal rate than that of Al, Fe, and Al/Fe under the same reaction conditions. The flocs of CAFMs contained abundant -NH2/OH as well as the large particle size, compact structure, and excellent settling performance. The hydrolyzed species of Al and Fe were predominantly Alb and Feb at pH 6, but the hydrolyzed species of CAFMs were primarily (Al + Fe)c. Moreover, the hydrolyzed species of Al and Al/Fe were found to complex with HA functional groups such as -COOH, C = O, C-H/C–C, C = C, and C–OH to form ligand bonds, while the hydrolyzed species (Al + Fe)c of CAFMs could deeply interact with HA functional groups including C-O, -COOH, C = O, C-H/C–C, C = C, and C–OH by the adsorption and sweeping.
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The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
The work was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51878001), Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Project Nos. 2208085Y18 and 2008085QE242), and the Open Project of Engineering Research Center of Biofilm Water Purification and Utilization Technology of Ministry of Education (Project Nos. BWPU2020KF08 and BWPU2021ZY03).
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Yanli Kong: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, review, and editing.
Meng Guo: data curation, formal analysis, visualization, writing.
Fan Lu: formal analysis, visualization, writing.
Aihua Huang: formal analysis, data curation.
Yong Nie: resources, writing — review and editing, supervision.
JiangYa Ma: resources, writing — review and editing, supervision, data curation.
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Kong, Y., Guo, M., Lu, F. et al. Coagulation performance and mechanism analysis of humic acid by using covalently bonded coagulants: effect of pH and matching mechanism of humic acid functional groups. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 22560–22575 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32257-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32257-6