Abstract
Amino-acid-based surfactants are promising collectors for the flotation of calcium-bearing minerals. In this study, N-hexadecanoylglycine (C16Gly) was used as a collector in the flotation system of fluorapatite (FA) and dolomite. Microflotation tests using single minerals implied that C16Gly could be applied as an efficient collector for FA over dolomite at pH 9 and 11. Zeta potential analyses indicated that the C16Gly anion was preferentially adsorbed onto the FA surface at pH 9.Density functional theory calculations revealed that the C16Gly ion could bind to two metal atoms on the dolomite surface in a bidentate fashion. On the other hand, the C16Gly ion interacted with two calcium atoms on the FA surface to generate tridentate binding structures. In these tridentate binding models, hydrogen bonding between the NH of C16Gly and PO4 groups occurred on the FA surface. Adsorption of the C16Gly ion on the FA surface through tridentate binding was significantly favored over bidentate binding to dolomite surface. Hence, FA could be efficiently floated by C16Gly rather than dolomite.
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