Dependence of Angle of Contact on the Constitution of Adsorbed Organic Compounds

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IN the course of an investigation conducted on behalf of the Broken Hill South, North Broken Hill, Zinc Corporation, Electrolytic Zinc, Mount Lyell, and Burma Corporation Mining Companies, measurements were made by two of us of the effect of xanthates on the angle of contact at a line of triple contact, mineralwater-air. These have been reported in Technical Publication No. 461 of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. A trace of potassium ethyl xanthate, dissolved in the water, leads to an angle of contact which is independent both of the concentration of the xanthate and the nature of the mineral. Another compound containing the ethyl group, sodium di-ethyl dithiophosphate, leads to an identical angle of contact. At the time of publication of the above paper it was uncertain whether this was merely a coincidence.