Mechanism of Modified Ether Amine Agents in Petalite and Quartz Flotation Systems under Weak Alkaline Conditions

Abstract

To investigate the flotation separation behavior of petalite and quartz, various methods were employed in this study. These included micro-flotation experiments, a contact angle analysis, zeta potential analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to explore the separation mechanism of a modified ether amine reagent (L0-503) for petalite and quartz under weakly alkaline conditions. The micro-flotation test results indicated that the modified ether amine collector had a higher collecting ability for quartz than for petalite, with a maximum recovery rate of 93.2% for quartz and a recovery rate consistently below 14% for petalite in the presence of L0-503. This indicates that the modified ether amine reagent can be used as a reverse flotation agent for separating petalite and quartz. The separation mechanism results showed that the modified ether amine reagent had a significantly higher adsorption capacity for quartz than for petalite due to a strong reaction between the quartz and the secondary amine (-NH=) on the modified ether amine collector. Additionally, the electrostatic force and hydrogen bonding between the reagent and quartz further enhanced the adsorption, while no reaction occurred between the reagent and petalite.

Correlation of Flotation Recoveries and Bubble–Particle Attachment Time for Dodecyl Ammonium Hydrochloride/Frother/Quartz Flotation System

“…While the flotation recovery was around 40% for coarse particles in the size range of −297 + 150 µm, an almost linear increase was obtained until about 70% recovery upon decreasing the size to −74 + 38 µm at the same collector dosage of 20 g/t at a pH value adjusted to 9.0. However, as mentioned in a recent study, the recoveries may decrease in the case of pH values being kept around 7 regardless of DAH concentration in the system [38]. These results reveal that regardless of the hydrodynamic conditions during the flotation process, the flotation recovery of finersized quartz particles will be better.…”

Quartz Fine Particle Processing: Hydrophobic Aggregation by Shear Flocculation

“…In very alkaline media, despite the greater availability of negative sites on quartz surface, the (𝑅𝑁𝐻 3 + ) (𝑅𝑁𝐻 2 ) ⁄ ratio decreases. The adsorption of amine molecules onto silicate surfaces at pH range of 4.0-11 has been confirmed by many studies [31,[36][37][38].…”

“…In the presence of DDA, the zeta potential of quartz particles in the pH range of 1.5-10.5 varies between 7-25 mV but drops to an average value of −35 mV at pH of 12. The change in the quartz zeta potential in the presence of a cationic collector, such as the DDA, is related to the interactions of the particles with the amine species present in the solution [31]. The positive zeta potential observed in the curves was expected to be due to a further adsorption of RNH + 3 and amine precipitation on the quartz surface [32].…”