Flocculation mechanism, polymer property

In order to generate information on the mechanism of flocculation by polymers it is, however, necessary to correlate flocculation with various system properties, particularly adsorption. Thus, if particle/polymer-polymer/particle contact is the aggregation mechanism, the flocculation responses should be expected to continuously increase with surface coverage. On the other hand, if particle/polymer-particle contact is predominant and if the polymer adsorption is essentially irreversible, maximum flocculation might be expected under submonolayer conditions. In order to determine the nature of this relationship for the present systems, selected flocculation responses are plotted in Figures 8 and 9 as a function of surface coverage for the nonionic and the anionic polymer respectively. The assumptions involved in the computation of the surface coverage are to be noted at this point ... 

Water-soluble cellulose derivatives themselves adsorb onto solid particles and may for instance affect the suspension properties of these insolubles. The mechanisms involved are quite complex and depend on the polymer concentration. At low concentrations macromolecules influence the electrophoretic mobility and the flocculation of the particles. At higher concentrations, surface coverage by the adsorbed polymer is sufficient to prevent particle-particle interaction and thus to stabilize the suspension sterically. As an example, the effect of NaCMC (among other polymers) on the zeta potential, flocculation and sedimentation properties of sulfadimidine has been investigated by Kellaway and Najib [115,116],... 

One major question of interest is how much asphaltene will flocculate out under certain conditions. Since the system under study consist generally of a mixture of oil, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes it may be possible to consider each of the constituents of this system as a continuous or discrete mixture (depending on the number of its components) interacting with each other as pseudo-pure-components. The theory of continuous mixtures (24), and the statistical mechanical theory of monomer/polymer solutions, and the theory of colloidal aggregations and solutions are utilized in our laboratories to analyze and predict the phase behavior and other properties of this system. 

We have seen that the rheological properties of weakly flocculated gels can be predicted at least qualitatively using reasonable particle-particle interaction potentials derived from van der Waals and polymer depletion forces. Can a similar approach succeed in predicting the mechanical properties of strongly flocculated gels ... 

In this chapter, the theories as well as the experimental justification for the mechanism of stabilization and destabilization of colloidal dispersions are outlined. Interacting forces between colloidal particles are analyzed and an overview of experimental methods for assessing the dispersion and relevant properties is given. The stabilization and flocculation of dispersions in the presence of surfactants and polymers is discussed in the last two sections. 

The second part is devoted to adsorption of polyelectrolytes at interfaces and to flocculation and stabilization of particles in adsorbing polymer solutions. A recent theory of the electrostatic adsorption barrier, some typical experimental results, and new approaches for studying the kinetics of polyelectrolyte adsorption are presented in the first chapter of this part. In the following chapters, results are collected on the electrical and hydrodynamic properties of colloid-polyelectrolyte surface layers, giving information on the structure of adsorbed layers and their influence on the interactions between colloidal particles examples and mechanisms are analyzed of polyelectrolyte-induced stabilization and fragmentation of colloidal aggregates ... 

Nystrom et al. [92, 93] correlated the observed flocculation behavior of calcium carbonate, induced by mixtures of cationic starch and anionic poly(sodium acrylate) (NaPA) at various electrolyte concentrations, with the complex properties. A strong correlation exists between the properties of the PEL mixture, primarily the amount of complexes formed, and the flocculation behavior. Several mechanisms are involved in this flocculation process induced by the two polymers. However, interparticle bridging by the PECs and charge neutralization induced by the deposition of the complexes were found to be the main reasons for the enhanced flocculation. 

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