Aluminum sulphate is used in water purification and as a mordant in dyeing and printing textiles.
in water purification, it causes suspended impurities to coagulate into large particles and then settle to the bottom of the container (or be filtered out) more easily.
this process is called coagulation or flocculation.
aluminum sulphate is sometimes called alum or papermakers alum, however, the name "alum" is more commonly and properly used for any double sulfate salt with the generic formula xai(so4)2.12h20, where x is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium (5).