Study on the Enhanced Desalinization of Hematite Reverse Flotation by a New Low-temperature Resistant Collector

This study has developed an efficient low-temperature resistant quartz collector, named KDB. The effect of KDB and the conventional collector sodium oleate (NaOL) on the reverse flotation behavior of hematite was investigated by flotation tests on pure minerals and binary mixed ores. On this basis, adsorption thermodynamics, surface tension determination, surface contact angle determination, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis were used to investigate the interaction mechanism of the two collectors at different temperatures. The results showed that both can enhance hematite reverse flotation at room temperature, and that the collection performance of KDB is stronger than that of NaOL. At low temperatures, the collection performance of KDB still obtained better flotation indices compared with NaOL. The binary mixed ore flotation test showed that, at 15°C, the grade and recovery with KDB as the collector was improved by 10.77% and 14.32% compared with those of NaOL, respectively. The contact angle of the quartz surface under the KDB system at 15°C is 55.56° higher than that of NaOL. The FTIR analysis showed that KDB can significantly enhance the hydrophobicity of quartz, and that the adsorption strength on the quartz surface at low temperatures is much higher than that of NaOL.