Improved flotation of artificial galena using a new catanionic mixture

Abstract

Issues related to environmental pollution and resource wastage have made the utilisation of Pb-bearing Zn residue an extremely urgent requirement. The floatability of artificial galena (AG) with a traditional xanthate collector was greatly improved by using a catanionic mixture (CM) as a collector, and the micromechanism was examined using flotation, zeta potential, adsorption, and slow positron beam measurements, together with molecular dynamics simulation. The flotation results revealed that the floatability of AG was inferior to that of natural galena (NG) when potassium amyl xanthate (KAX) was used as the collector, but it improved when using the CM. The results of zeta potential measurements, adsorption experiments, and slow positron beam detection demonstrated that the amount of KAX adsorbed on AG in the KAX/AG system was lower than that on NG in the KAX/NG system because of the greater electronegativity of surface Pb active sites resulting from the presence of S vacancy defects in AG. The molecular dynamics simulation showed that cetyl pyridine chloride and KAX promoted each other’s adsorption in the CM/AG system because of the electrostatic attraction between the sulfhydryl and pyridyl groups and the hydrophobic attraction between the amyl and cetyl groups. An adsorption model was proposed to better explain the greater floatability of AG when using the CM.