A novel strategy of sweep coagulation to treat low-turbidity water is presented herein. Preliminary study findings demonstrate the feasibility of employing flocs formed by coagulation of montmorillonite suspension with cationic polyelectrolyte as a surrogate to the amorphous Al(OH)(3) precipitated in sweep coagulation. Excellent efficiency of turbidity removal is attained via physical entrapment of TiO2 particles within the flocculating montmorillonite flocs.