Action of Physisorbed Collector in Particle-Bubble Attachment
S. A. Kondrat'ev
Chinakal Institute of Mining, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630091 Russia
Keywords: Flotation, chemisorptions, physisorption, hydrophobic behavior, wetting angle, flotation performance enhancement
Abstract
The action of the arbitrary physisorbed species of a collector at a mineral is compared with the theoretical evidence on particle-bubble attachment. The lack of the correlation between the hydrophobic behavior, characterized by the wetting angle, and the floatability of minerals, as well as the correlation between the inductance time and the mineral recovery are discussed. The causes of disagreement between the collectability sequence of xanthates, dithiophosphates and dithiocarbamates and the sequence of boost in energy of chemical bond between these reagents and cation of mineral lattice are exposed. Collectabilities of frothers and residues of the collectors are explained. The ways to increase flotation performance are shown, namely, the mineral recovery and the concentrate quality can be improved by means of adjustment of the chemisorbable /physisorbable collector ratio.
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