Effect of aluminium sulphate on interactions between silica surfaces studied by atomic force microscopy

Surface interaction forces between different types of silica surfaces (pure silica beads, borosilicate glass beads, polished silicon wafers and fused silica slides) were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in solutions of aluminium sulphate (alum) in order to understand the role of hydrated aluminium species on the coagulation of negatively charged oxide colloids in drinking water treatment. The alum coagulant concentration used in this study was 150 μM aluminium. The alum solutions were prepared from analytical grade Al2(SO4)3·16H2O. It was found that the presence of aluminium sulphate at a concentration close to the values typically used in industrial scale water treatment applications generally induced strong, long-range repulsive forces between the various types of surfaces studied. At this alum concentration streaming potential measurements indicated reversal in the sign of the surface charge. It was also found that whenever borosilicate glass beads were used, the interaction force became strongly attractive when the AFM cell was flushed with deionised water. It was argued that this attraction occurred because of the charge nonuniformity of the aluminium hydrates adsorbed at the glass surface. A mechanism was proposed to explain the observed interaction phenomena based on the deduced microstructure of the adsorbed surface layers and to rationalise the new findings for applications in drinking water treatment.