Effect of Fluoride Ion on the Separation of Fluorite from Calcite Using Flotation with Acidified Water Glass

As a common depressant, acidified water glass (AWG) has strong inhibitory effects on fluorite and calcite. The inhibited fluorite is difficult to be recovered, thus resulting in the waste of resources and low flotation efficiency. In this study, the interaction of fluoride ions with fluorite and cal...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Daqian Wang, Dan Liu, Yingbo Mao, Ruofan Sun, Ruitao Liu, Shuming Wen
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/fc20cfb6db0d436e81991fd2276e0549
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:As a common depressant, acidified water glass (AWG) has strong inhibitory effects on fluorite and calcite. The inhibited fluorite is difficult to be recovered, thus resulting in the waste of resources and low flotation efficiency. In this study, the interaction of fluoride ions with fluorite and calcite surfaces was investigated, and its effects of AWG adsorption on mineral surfaces were evaluated. Micro-flotation experiments indicated that the flotation recovery of fluorite is 88.72% after fluoride ion treatment, that is, approximately fourfold with respect to that without fluoride ion modification. The results of solution chemical calculations showed that SiO(OH)<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup> is the main component to inhibit fluorite, and Si(OH)<sub>4</sub> is the main component to inhibit calcite in AWG solution. XPS and ICP-MS results showed that fluoride ions can improve the floatability of fluorite by converting CaSiO<sub>3</sub> on the surface of fluorite into CaF<sub>2</sub>, but the conversion ability of Si(OH)<sub>4</sub> on the surface of calcite is weak, which increases the difference in floatability between fluorite and calcite. The above results were further verified by the analysis of flotation foam image and contact angle measurement. After fluorine ion treatment, the contact angle of fluorite increased, and it was more easily adsorbed on the foam. Therefore, the interaction of the fluoride ion with the fluorite surfaces eliminated the adsorption of AWG on fluorite, thereby resulting in the enhanced hydrophobicity of fluorite. Different from the traditional metal ions modification, the idea of anion modification in this paper is expected to be further studied.