Abstract
Can the critical coalescence concentration (CCC) of the flotation frothers be predictable? What is the relation between their molecular structure and their CCC values? A literature survey found specific correlations between the hydrophilic-lipophilic balances (HLB) and HLB/Mw (where Mw stands for the molecular mass) of homologue series of frothers and their CCC values, but the results are invalid when the molecule’s functional groups change. For this reason, 37 frothers with known values of CCC were analyzed. The CCC values of seven frothers were determined, and the rest were taken from the literature. The frothers were subdivided in homologue series with an increasing number of the carbon atoms with an account for the type and the location of the functional group, thus deriving three types of correlations lnCCC = f(HLB) applicable for: (i) alcohols; (ii) propylene glycols alkyl ethers and propylene glycols; (iii) ethylene glycols alkyl ethers. The average accuracy of these correlations between CCC and HLB is 93%.
Highlights
It is well known that the surface activity of the frothers in their aqueous solutions depends mostly on their molecular structure
We measured the coalescence concentration (CCC) values of 7 frothers, which are of particular interest to the mining industry
The approach of Szyszka et al, [31,44] and Kovalszuk [39], to obtain a correlation between the CCC values, the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) values of the frothers and their molecular mass. This is the first study to establish a relation between the CCC value and the molecular structure of the frother
Summary
It is well known that the surface activity of the frothers in their aqueous solutions depends mostly on their molecular structure. The quantitative structure–property/activity relationship (QSPR/QSAR) is a contemporary semi-empirical powerful method for predicting the properties (QSPR) [47,48,49,50,51,52,53] and activities (QSAR) [54,55] of different systems (frothers, bio-molecules, liquid systems, etc.), such as the critical micelle concentration (CMC), the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), the cloud point, the solubility, the toxicity, the biological activity, and the vapor pressure, etc They operate with a number of molecular descriptors, calculated by quantum-chemical software programs. We call upon further investigation on the relationship between the CCC values of the frothers and their molecular structure
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