Polymeric flocculants of aluminum hydroxide-poly[acrylamide-co-(acrylic acid)], AHAMAA, were prepared by solution polymerization using aluminum hydroxide as a coagulant in the presence of acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) as a comonomer pair with N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide as a crosslinking agent. The crosslinking was initiated by ammonium persulfate with N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine as an initiator. The water absorbency of crosslinked poly[AM-co-AA] was always higher than that of AHAMAA and was found to be correlated to the storage modulus of the polymers, which was higher for AHAMAA than that of crosslinked poly[AM-co-AA]. The residual aluminum concentration of AHAMAA (0.09-0.2 mg L-1) indicated the stability of the polymer flocculant which was in good agreement with the observed tan delta and the higher G '' and G' values. Both the crosslinked poly[AM-co-AA] and AHAMAA satisfactorily reduced the turbidity of kaolin suspensions, but the latter gave a better reduction performance. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 114: 2564-2575, 2009