Abstract
The synergetic effect of four octaphenyl polyoxyethyienes (TX) on low temperature flotation of scheelite at 9–11 °C was investigated through flotation experiments, and the adsorption mechanism was studied by way of surface tension, zeta potential, and adsorption measurement. The results show that the presence of the four octaphenyl polyoxyethyienes can improve scheelite flotation in a low concentration range, and their synergetic effects increase with the increase of the oxyethyl group (EO) number in their molecular structure, the mixed sodium oleate/TX-15 collector exhibits the best collecting performance for scheelite. Compared with sodium oleate alone, a larger reduced value of zeta potential is seen in the presence of the mixed collectors, and the adsorption of sodium oleate on the scheelite surface is enhanced for a constant sodium oleate concentration. Moreover, the synergetic effect of TX-15 can be well demonstrated through surface tension measurement, a lower critical micelle concentration (CMC) value of the mixed sodium oleate/TX-15 surfactant is obtained, indicating a higher surface property. Therefore, the mixed sodium oleate/TX-15 collector is suitable for low temperature flotation of scheelite.
Highlights
Fatty acid is the most extensively used collector in the flotation practice of scheelite due to the advantages of wide availability of sources and low price
Wang et al, studied the flotation separation of muscovite from quartz using a mixed anionic/cationic collector of sodium oleate and dodecylamine, the results showed that the flotation behavior of muscovite was improved, and the adsorption of dodecylamine was enhanced by the co-adsorption of sodium oleate in the mixed collector system [12]
Reported the synergetic effects of an alcoholic reagent (Exol) for Ca-bearing mineral flotation with sodium oleate, and the results showed that sodium oleate mixed with a nonionic reagent adsorbs onto scheelite surfaces, and the adsorption on the scheelite surface was increased for a constant oleate concentration [13,14]
Summary
Fatty acid is the most extensively used collector in the flotation practice of scheelite due to the advantages of wide availability of sources and low price. With the development of reagent synthesis technology, a series of new modified fatty acids have been successfully developed, largely extending the application range of fatty acids and increasing the selectivity [3,4,5] They are hard to spread in industrial production owing to the complex synthesis process and high cost. A number of studies show that the addition of non-ionic surfactants (such as Tween-80, NP-4, and so on) can improve the collecting performance of fatty acids at low temperatures, and increases flotation recovery of minerals (scheelite, apatite, diaspore) [15,16,17,18] it is necessary to systematically study the adsorption mechanism of the mixed collector at a low temperature, which can provide an important theoretical guiding role in flotation practice. The flotation behavior of scheelite using single and binary mixtures of sodium oleate and a polyoxyethylene ether as the collector were investigated, and the adsorption mechanism of the mixed anionic/non-ionic collector on scheelite surface was analyzed by zeta-potential and adsorption density measurements
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