Application of ionic liquids as novel collectors with low-foam viscous in flotation separation of quartz and magnesite

Application of quaternary ammonium based ionic liquids as a novel flotation collector with low-foam viscosity of quartz has been investigated. The flotation behavior, foam performance and surface properties of quartz flotation with mono-2-ethylhexyl (2-Ethylhexyl)phosphonate-dodecyl trimethyl ammonium (P507-N12111) as collector were studied by microbubble flotation experiments, foam collapse experiments, scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), contact angle, X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and fourier transforming infrared spectra (FT-IR) spectrometer analysis. The foam collapse performance analysis showed that ionic liquid (P507-N12111) has better defoaming performance and foam performance. The micro-flotation results demonstrated that P507-N12111 exhibited a good application potential as a collector for desilication of magnesite and quartz by reverse flotation. Under the optimum flotation conditions of pulp pH 11 and 20 mg/L P507N12111, the MgO grade and recovery of concentrate were 43 % and 98.7 %, respectively. The analysis of SEM-EDS confirmed that P507-N12111 was adsorbed on the surface of quartz. The results of contact angle analysis demonstrated that P507-N12111 increased the hydrophobicity difference between quartz and magnesite. The FT-IR and XPS analysis also confirmed that the O on the surface of quartz participated in the adsorption process, and the selective adsorption of cations from P507-N12111 on the surface of quartz was driven by electrostatic affinity. (c) 2024 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier BV and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.