Low-rank
coal (LRC) contains large amounts of harmful impurities
that must be processed before utilization. Flotation is an effective
means for separating fine particles, which can be influenced by air
solubility in water. In this work, deaerated water (DW), ordinary
water (OW), and pressurized water (PW) were prepared to research the
underlying mechanism of the effect of air solubility on the flotation
performance of LRC. The results show that PW dissolves the greatest
amount of air in the three kinds of water (DW, OW, and PW). The flotation
performance of LRC in different water types is directly proportional
to air solubility in aqueous solutions. In addition, the induction
time of LRC in PW (600 ms) is significantly shorter than those in
OW (1200 ms) and DW (4000 ms). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies
reveal that typical interfacial nanobubbles (NBs) only form on a highly
oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface in PW due to the supersaturated
air in water. Furthermore, the interaction between LRC particles and
HOPG in PW is significantly stronger than those in both OW and DW,
which is attributed to the capillary force of rgw nanobubble bridge
formed between particles. The hydrophobic interaction enhanced by
NBs is critically important for the attachment of LRC particles to
macrobubbles in flotation. Overall, air solubility in water has a
great effect on LRC flotation performance, and PW flotation technology
can be extended to LRC purification.