Design and regulation about composition of minerals and TiO₂ particles

Abstract

To guide the composition of mineral and TiO₂ particles by hydrophobic agglomeration, a relationship between interaction energy of particles (van der Waals energy, electrostatic energy and hydrophobic interaction energy) and their distance between these particles in aqueous medium was established according to the extended Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek theory and hydrophobic agglomeration theory. In this paper, a CaCO₃-TiO₂ composite material (CaCO₃ particle was coated by TiO₂ particles) was prepared to verify the correctness of the theory through surface-induced hydrophobic interactions. The performance and structure of this composite were characterised by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, ultrasonic strength test, particle size analyser, whiteness, hiding power and oil absorption. The experiment results about the coating situation are agreement with the calculation analysis. These results are significant to guide the experiment for preparation of the CaCO₃-TiO₂ composite by hydrophobic agglomeration compound.

Keywords:

• Induced hydrophobic regulation
• Hydrophobic agglomeration
• Interaction energy
• Calculations
• Compound

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51474194 and grant no. 21106138) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. 2011YXL062) during part of this research.