Abstract
Efficient beneficiation of microcrystalline graphite remains a challenge. Selective recovery of microcrystalline graphite from quartz using hydrophobized magnetite as magnetic seed is studied in this work. Magnetite was hydrophobized by the surface coating of sodium oleate. The hydrophobic agglomerates were then separated by magnetic separation. Sedimentation experiments were performed to study the adhesion of microcrystalline graphite and quartz to magnetite particles. The results showed that hydrophobized magnetite led to a higher microcrystalline graphite recovery than that of the original magnetite, due to the higher probability to bond with microcrystalline graphite. However, the hydrophobization of the magnetite surface had an insignificant effect on its interaction with quartz. The force analysis based on the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (EDLVO) theory indicated that the total attractive interaction between hydrophobized magnetite and microcrystalline graphite were obviously stronger than that between hydrophobized magnetite and quartz, resulting in the selective aggregation between hydrophobized magnetite and microcrystalline graphite.
Highlights
Graphite is a typical carbonaceous material with excellent characteristics, such as electrical conductivity, corrosiveness resistance, tenacity, and lubrication [1,2,3], and its mineral deposits are found widely throughout the world
Microcrystalline graphite is composed of fine graphite crystals that are less than 1 μm
Mineral samples were characterized by an X-ray diffractometer (XRD, D8 Advance, Bruker) (Bruker Co., Karlsruhe, Germany), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometer (S8 Tiger, Bruker) (Bruker Co., Karlsruhe, Germany), and a laser particle size analyzer (S3500, Microtrac)
Summary
Graphite is a typical carbonaceous material with excellent characteristics, such as electrical conductivity, corrosiveness resistance, tenacity, and lubrication [1,2,3], and its mineral deposits are found widely throughout the world. Once the selective attachment takes place, these magnetic agglomerates can be recovered by magnetic separation [15,16,17,18,19,20] Such techniques have been explored both experimentally and theoretically in mineral processing practices. The selective magnetic separation of pentlandite from serpentine with magnetite was studied extensively [24,25,26] These techniques have found applications in the beneficiation of other minerals, including ferrihydrite, gold, coal, calcite, and dolomite [16,27,28]. The separation of microcrystalline graphite from quartz using magnetic seeding is reported for the first time Both original and hydrophobized magnetite particles were used as magnetic seeds. This work is expected to provide a promising alternative to the recovery of microcrystalline graphite
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