Study of adsorption characteristics of long chain alkyl amine and petroleum sulfonate on silicates by electrokinetic potential, microflotation, FTIR, and AFM analyses

ABSTRACT

The long-chain alkyl amines and petroleum sulfonates are mostly used to remove unwanted minerals from feldspar ores in acidic pHs. In this study, their adsorption characteristics on pure albite and quartz were investigated by electrokinetic potential measurements, microflotation tests, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy studies. According to the results, amine had strong influence on zeta potentials of both albite and quartz turning them positive and resulting over 90% flotation recovery at certain pH values. Petroleum sulfonate, on the other hand, was less effective in terms of both zeta potential values and flotation recovery responses of albite. Although albite and quartz had different zeta potentials and flotation recovery responses with each collector, they displayed similar adsorption bands of CH₂ group over fingerprint region and adsorption layers with different intensities after being treated with the collectors. However, the adsorption of each collector on the minerals was altered by rinsing with acetone indicating that the interaction of the collectors with albite and quartz surfaces were mostly by Coulombic forces and hydrogen bonding.

KEYWORDS:

• AFM
• amine
• electrokinetic potential
• flotation response
• FTIR
• petroleum sulfonate
• silicates-collector interaction

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by State Planning Organization of Turkey (DPT). The electrokinetic potential measurements and the microflotation tests were performed in the Research Laboratory of Mining Engineering Department and the FTIR analyses were performed in the Surface and Nano Science Laboratory, Chemistry Department, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. The AFM analyses were conducted in Dr. Gewirth’s Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL, USA.