The mechanism of sodium silicate depressing fluorite in scheelite heating flotation

Abstract

In this study, a model of the scheelite-fluorite flotation system was constructed to investigate the interaction between sodium silicate and sodium oleate in the solution environment. The Mulliken charges distribution of each component was calculated by density functional theory, and the Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation studied the interaction between sodium silicate and sodium oleate at room temperature (298 K) and high temperature (363 K). The MD simulation and TEM analysis results show that the sodium silicate molecules will aggregate and envelope the sodium oleate molecules after heating. Combined with the flotation and adsorption results, the mechanism of sodium silicate inhibiting fluorite is that sodium silicate will envelop sodium oleate during heating cleaning, resulting in sodium oleate not re-adsorbing on the fluorite surface.