Selective flotation of calcium minerals using double-headed collectors

Figures & data

Figure 1. (Top-left) Sodium dodecanoate; (Top-right) Sodium N-dodecanoylglycinate; (Middle) Disodium N-dodecanoylaminomalonate; (Bottom-left) Disodium N-dodecanoylaspartate and (Bottom-right) Disodium N-dodecanoylglutamate.^[18]

Figure 2. Flotation recovery for different minerals. apa, cal and flu stand for apatite, calcite and fluorite, respectively. The –c and –p terms indicate variation in concentration and pH, respectively.

Figure 3. ζ Potential measurement for different minerals.

Figure 4. UV absorption measurement of collector solutions after the mineral treatment.

Figure 5. TOC measurement of C12MalNa₂ solutions before and after the mineral treatment.

Figure 6. FTIR measurement of C12MalNa₂ coated mineral particles (both floated and non-floated).

Figure 7. (a) Surfactant monolayer at the particle bubble interface. (b) A hypothetical ‘stable’ bilayer formation hindering efficient floatation. (c) A multilayer formation promoted by calcium ions (in red).

Table 1. Maximum distance between head groups in the double-headed collector molecules.

Collector	C12MalNa2	C12AspNa2	C12GluNa2
Distance, Å	3.570	6.153	6.212

Table 2. Surface Ca-Ca shortest distance in calcium minerals.

Mineral	Apatite	Calcite	Fluorite
Distance, Å	3.428	4.048	3.536
	4.050	4.990	5.000

Baldauf, H.; Singh, D.-V.; Schubert, H. Flotation of Tin Ores with Dicarboxylic Acids. Neue Bergbautech. 1980, 10, 692–698.

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