Study on Sulfide Layer Attenuation Behavior of Smithsonite During Sulfidization Flotation

Abstract

The S content on the surface of smithsonite plays a decisive role in smithsonite flotation. In this study, the attenuation behavior of smithsonite surface sulfide layer was investigated by inductive coupling plasma mass-spectrometric (ICP-MS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS). The results of smithsonite surface S adsorption capacity tests indicated that smithsonite surface sulfide layer is not stable, and the S adsorption capacity decreased from 22.12 × 10 −7 to 20.52 × 10 −7 mol/g from 6 to 8 min with a decrease of 7.2%. NH 4 Cl can enhance the stability of S adsorption on the smithsonite surface. After adding NH 4 Cl, the S adsorption capacity on smithsonite surface for sulfidization 8 min was increased by 10.9%. However, the S falling off capacity tests showed that the S-species will fall off from smithsonite surface under mechanical stirring. The largest amount of falling off capacity is 3.701 × 10 −7 mol/g, with a decreased percentage of 16.7%. XPS analysis indicated that monosulfide, disulfide, polysulph, sulphite, and sulfate are all the sources of the S-species falling off from the surface, and the relative content of disulfide on smithsonite surface has the greatest decreasing, reaching 0.33%. Mechanical stirring is an important reason for sulfide layer attenuation of smithsonite surface. Monosulfide, disulfide, and polysulph on smithsonite surface can be converted into soluble sulphite and soluble sulfate, resulting in the decrease of S content on smithsonite surface.

Enhancing flotation of smithsonite by using 1,3,5-Triazinane-2,4,6-trithione as sulfidation

“…Compared with references (Liu et al, 2021;Zeng et al, 2020), Fig. 2 All the agents used in the experiment were analytical grades.…”

“…By the way, with the increase of pulp alkalinity, the recovery rate gradually decreases. This is because the ion produced by the hydrolysis of smithsonite in alkaline environment interacts with the reagent, which greatly reduces the reagent adsorbed on the mineral surface (Zeng et al, 2020).…”

“…As the key of sulfurized flotation of oxide ore, the dosage of sulfidation plays an important role in the flotation recovery of oxide ore (Zeng et al, 2020). However, with the increase of the amount of most sulfidation, the flotation of oxide ore will be inhibited to a certain extent.…”