This study investigated the floc aggregation, average floc size, floc size variance and floc growth velocity when ferric chloride (FeCl3) and polyferric chloride (PFC) were used to treat the simulated water samples. The factors including coagulant dose, ionic strength and solution pH, which affect the floc aggregation, were studied. Experiments were carried out in a bench-scale reactor using photometric dispersion analyzer (PDA). Results showed that there were great differences between the floc aggregation of PFC and FeCl3.The average floc size and floc growth velocity of PFC were much larger than those of FeCl3. Compared with FeCl3, PFC gave a better coagulation performance in wider range of pH, dosage and ionic strength. It was also found that the coagulation efficiency of PFC did not depend on average floc size but on floc growth velocity.