Issue 2, 2022, Issue in Progress

The new life of traditional water treatment flocculant polyaluminum chloride (PAC): a green and efficient micro–nano reactor catalyst in alcohol solvents

Abstract

Polyaluminum chloride (PAC) is an inorganic polymer material that has the advantages of a simple preparation process and special electronic structure. It is considered to be the most efficient and widely used flocculation material for water treatment. In this work, PAC has been used as a Lewis acid catalyst in interdisciplinary fields because of its polynuclear Al–O cation structure. Further, its catalytic mechanism in green organic synthesis has been studied in detail by using the multicomponent Biginelli reaction as the probe. The effect of solvent on the self-assembly and aggregation process of PAC materials was investigated using optical microscopy, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, particle size analysis, XPS, IR, SEM and HR-TEM. The results show that the PAC materials have different morphological characteristics in different solvents. The Al–O–Al cations were transformed in the ethanol solvent to form new multi-nuclear cation aggregates Alb, which could be used as inorganic micro–nano reactors with unique synergistic catalysis in catalytic reactions. This is the first time the role of PAC in the Biginelli reaction has been analyzed with a liquid in situ infrared instrument, which provided favorable evidence for the speculated reaction mechanism. The PAC–ethanol system is, therefore, considered to be a green, efficient (best yield >99%), economic and recyclable catalyst for catalyzing organic synthesis reactions. The development and utilization of PAC materials in organic synthesis will bring new vitality to this cheap material, which is widely used in industries.

Graphical abstract: The new life of traditional water treatment flocculant polyaluminum chloride (PAC): a green and efficient micro–nano reactor catalyst in alcohol solvents

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Nov 2021
Accepted
26 Nov 2021
First published
23 Dec 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 655-663

The new life of traditional water treatment flocculant polyaluminum chloride (PAC): a green and efficient micro–nano reactor catalyst in alcohol solvents

G. Wang, P. Hao, Y. Liang, Y. Liang, W. Liu, J. Wen, X. Li, H. Zhan and S. Bi, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 655 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA08038E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements