Separation mechanism of ilmenite from titanaugite with mixed BHA/NaOL collector

• Published in: Minerals engineering 2022-01, Vol.176, p.107363, Article 107363
• Main Authors: Meng, Qingyou, Xu, Yuankai, Yuan, Zhitao, Zhao, Xuan, Du, Yusheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Co-adsorption; Flotation separation; Mixed collector; Molecular dynamic simulation
• ISSN: 0892-6875; 1872-9444
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2021.107363

•Mixed BHA/NaOL showed higher selectivity and collecting ability for ilmenite flotation.•Mixed BHA/NaOL was co-adsorbed on the ilmenite surface by hydrogen bonds.•Adsorbed mixed micelles prevented titanaugite from floating up. The mixed BHA/NaOL surfactant was proposed as a flotation collector for the separation of ilmenite from titanaugite. Both experimental and computational studies were applied to reveal the interaction mechanism between minerals and mixed BHA/NaOL collector. Microflotation tests showed that the floatability of ilmenite was higher than titanaugite with mixed BHA/NaOL collector. The experiment of artificially mixed minerals achieved an excellent indicator with 86.50% of recovery and 39.42% of TiO2 grade. The results of zeta potential, AFM and XPS analyses indicated that the mixed BHA/NaOL interacted with Fe and Pb active sites and co-adsorbed onto the ilmenite surface, but only physical adsorption on the titanaugite surface. Simulation results evidenced that BHA/NaOL collectors could substitute water molecules on ilmenite surface rather than titanaugite and form a stable hydrophobic layer on the ilmenite surface. These observations contributed to enlarging the floatability difference between ilmenite and titanaugite.