Monitoring effects of shearing on floc structure using small-angle light scattering

摘要

In this work, small-angle light scattering was used to investigate the formation of iron hydroxide flocs from the hydrolysation of FeCl_3 solution. The freshly formed iron hydroxide flocs had a fractal dimension of 2.25 ± 0.05, and as the hydrolysation proceeded the flocs grew and restructured to a more compact form with a fractal dimension of 2.52 ± 0.05. The effect of shearing on the structure of the flocs was also studied. At low shearing rates, increasing the shear induced only the restructuring of the flocs, but at a high shearing rate the shear induced both the breakup and restructuring of the flocs.