Effective collection of hydrophobic organic pollutants in water with aluminum hydroxide and hydrophobically modified polyacrylic acid

Polyacrylic acid was hydrophobically modified with dodecylamine and used as a coagulant for coprecipitation of hydrophobic organic pollutants from water. The polymer coagulant induced effective aggregation of aluminum hydroxide having hydrophobic regions which are essential for the incorporation of hydrophobic organic pollutants. Recoveries of the organic pollutants increased with increasing the dodecylamine content, which indicated that the dodecylamine moiety played an important role in the formation of hydrophobic area on the precipitate. Different hydrophobic organic pollutants that had hardly been removed by the conventional coprecipitation were successfully collected by the proposed method.

► Dodecylamine-polyacrylic acid was a useful polymer coagulant for aluminum hydroxide.
► Dodecylamine-polyacrylic acid provided hydrophobic region on the precipitate.
► Hydrophobic property of the precipitate corresponds to octanol or ethyl acetate.
► Hydrophobic organic pollutants in water were effectively collected to the precipitate.