Mechanism of kaolinite and titanium dioxide flocculation using chitosan—assistance by fulvic acids

Flocculation of kaolinite using chitosan alone as flocculant has been reported to be difficult. Detailed investigations in our laboratory have shown that kaolinite can be easily removed from aqueous suspensions by flocculation and settling using chitosan, provided the suspension medium contains traces of dissolved humic substances. The flocculation is also extremely sensitive to the pH of the suspension. Removal of suspended titanium dioxide particles in water by flocculation using chitosan in presence of humic acids is also reported for the first time. A plausible mechanism explaining these observations is proposed in this paper.