FLOTATION SEPARATION OF QUARTZ FROM HEMATITE USING BIS(2-HYDROXYLETHYL)DODECYLAMINE
AS CATIONIC COLLECTOR
WENGANG LIU*, DEZHOU WEI, BAOYU CUI, ZICHUAN GUAN, PING FANG, BENYING WANG &
CONG HAN
College of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
*Corresponding Author
E-mail: liuwengang@mail.neu.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
These days, many iron ore industries are currently focused on recovering iron values from low grade ores
by reverse froth flotation method. Reagents of a large group of amines are mainly used as cationic
collectors. However, there are still some disadvantages with these cationic collectors, such as low
solubility in water and cohesive bubbles. Therefore, further research on cationic collectors used in reverse
flotation of iron ores is launching to promote the utilization efficiency of iron ores.
One new cationic surfactant, bis(2-hydroxylethyl) dodecylamine (B2HD), that can be dissolved in water
easily was used as collector in quartz flotation. It was found that B2HD showed stronger collecting
performance to quartz than dodecyl amine. The maximum recovery of 96.30% to quartz was obtained at a
collector concentration of 20.0 mg/L in the pulp pH range of 5-7. This collector can be used to float quartz
from hematite. And optimal separation results with 86.59% iron recovery and 66.60% iron grade to
artificially mixed sample were achieved at a collector concentration of 20.0 mg/L at pulp pH of 5.02 when
hematite and quartz were mixed at a mass ratio of 3:2. The adsorption mechanism of the collector on
quartz surface was investigated by XPS analysis, infrared spectroscopic analysis and zeta-potential
measurements, which revealed that electrostatic attraction and hydrogen bonding adsorption occurred
between the collector and quartz surface.
Figure 1 – Effect of collector concentration on
mineral recoveries
Figure 2 – Effect of pulp pH on artificially
mixed sample separation
KEYWORDS
Flotation separation, Bis(2-hydroxylethyl) dodecylamine, Quartz , Hematite, Adsorption