The Influence of Common Chlorides on the Adsorption of SBX on Chalcopyrite Surface during Flotation Process

ABSTRACT

Chalcopyrite flotability were investigated in four common chloride salts. The results indicated that NaCl, KCl, CaCl₂ increased chalcopyrite recovery while MgCl₂ decreased its recovery. The monovalent salts played an insignificant role while divalent salts apparently decreased the contact angle of chalcopyrite, regardless of the presence of collectors. Furthermore, the zeta potential was increased in divalent salts and even changed from negative to positive values in MgCl₂, highly due to Mg(OH)₂ precipitation on chalcopyrite surface. In addition, molecular dynamics simulation indicated that Mg(OH)₂ precipitates on chalcopyrite (112) surface stabilized the liquid layer and formed a hydrophilic barrier to inhibit SBX adsorption.

KEYWORDS:

• Chalcopyrite
• flotation
• precipitation
• molecular dynamics simulation
• mechanisms

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51604205, 51774223) and Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2016CFB268). The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WUT: 2016IVA046 and 2017IVB018) and the undergraduate research foundation for independent innovation from Wuhan University of Technology (2017-ZH-A1-03 and 2017-ZH-C1-18) are also gratefully acknowledged. A special thank is given to the financial support for the Excellent Dissertation Cultivation Funds of Wuhan University of Technology (2017-YS-052). In addition, Yingjie Li thanks the supports from Social Development Science and Technology Breakthrough Project of Shaanxi province (2015SF293).