Abstract
Novel eco-friendly organic depressants with high selectivity are attracting ever-growing interests. The selective inhibition effect of pyrogallic acid (PA) on galena in chalcopyrite flotation was investigated in this study. Flotation trials showed that PA markedly depressed galena with only a small effect on chalcopyrite, which contributed to the separation of chalcopyrite and galena by flotation after adding a low dosage of PA. Surface hydrophobicity tests suggested that PA strongly adsorbed on galena but not on chalcopyrite, which attenuated the adsorption activity of collector on galena, thus rendering galena highly hydrophilic. Conversely, chalcopyrite still retained favorable floatability. These findings were corroborated by the results obtained from infrared and surface adsorption measurements. Results of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements also validated the strong adsorption of PA on galena. This behavior promoted the generation of other hydrophilic species on galena. In addition, molecular dynamic simulations demonstrated that PA tended to adsorb on galena, and water molecules accumulated on galena following PA adsorption, which would decrease the floatability of galena.
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