Browsing by Author "Zhang, Jinhong"

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    AFM Image Analysis of the Adsorption of Xanthate and Dialkyl Dithiophosphate on Chalcocite
    Zhang, Jinhong; Zhang, Wei (MDPI, 2022-08-13)
    Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been applied to study the adsorption morphology of various collectors, i.e., potassium ethyl xanthate (KEX) and potassium amyl xanthate (PAX) and Cytec Aerofloat 238 (sodium dibutyl dithiophosphate), on chalcocite in situ in aqueous solutions. The AFM images show that all these collectors adsorb strongly on chalcocite. Xanthate adsorbs mainly in the form of insoluble cuprous xanthate (CuX), which binds strongly with the mineral surface without being removed by flushing with ethanol alcohol. This xanthate/chalcocite adsorption mechanism is very similar to the one obtained with the xanthate/bornite system; while it is different from the one of the xanthate/chalcopyrite systems, for which oily dixanthogen is the main adsorption product on chalcopyrite surface. On the other hand, dibutyl dithiophosphate adsorbs on chalcocite in the form of hydrophobic patches, which can be removed by rinsing with ethanol alcohol. AFM images show that the adsorption of collectors increases with increasing adsorption time and collectors’ concentration. In addition, increasing the solution pH to 10 does not prevent the adsorption of xanthate and Aerofloat 238 on chalcocite and the result is in line with the fact that chalcocite floats well in a wide pH range up to 12 with xanthate and dialkyl dithiophosphate being used as collectors. The blending collectors study shows that xanthate and dialkyl dithiophosphate can co-adsorb with both insoluble cuprous xanthate and oily Cu(DTP)2 (Cu dibutyl dithiophosphate) on a chalcocite surface. The present study helps to clarify the flotation mechanism of chalcocite in industry practice using xanthate and dialkyl dithiophosphate as collectors.
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    Surface Forces between Silica Surfaces in CnTACl Solutions and Surface Free Energy Characterization of Talc
    Zhang, Jinhong (Virginia Tech, 2006-11-29)
    In general, the stability of suspension can be studied using two methods. One is to directly measure the forces between two interacting surfaces in media. The other is to study the interfacial surface free energies of the particles in suspension. Direct surface force measurements were conducted between silica surfaces in octadecyltrimetylammonium chloride (C₁₈TACl) solutions using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The results showed that the hydrophobic force existed in both air-saturated and degassed C₁₈TACl solutions. The attraction decreased with NaCl addition, and was the strongest at the point of charge neutralization (p.c.n.) of silica substrate. The force measurement results obtained in CnTACl solutions showed that the attractions decayed exponentially and became the maximum at the p.c.n.'s. The decay lengths (D) increased with surfactant chain length. The measured forces were fitted to a charged-patch model of Miklavic et al. (1994) with rather large patch sizes. It was also found that the decay length decreased linearly with the effective concentration of the CH2/CH3 groups raised to the power of -1/2. This finding is in line with the model of Eriksson et al. (1989). It suggested that the long-range attractions are hydrophobic forces originating from the changes in water structure across a hydrophobic surface-solution interface. For the TiO₂/water/TiO₂ system, the Hamaker constant was found to be 4±1×10-20 J. The force curves obtained in the TiO₂/CnTACl system showed a repulsion-attraction-repulsion transition with increasing surfactant concentration. The long-range attraction observed between TiO₂ surfaces in CnTACl solutions reached maximum at the p.c.n., and the decay length increased with chain length. In present work, the thin-layer wicking technique was used to determine the surface free energy (γs) and its components of talc samples. The results showed that the basal surfaces of talc are weakly basic while the edge surfaces are acidic. The effect of chemicals on the surface free energies of talc was systemically studied. The results showed that CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt) and EO/PO (ethylene oxide/propylene oxide) co-polymers made talc surface hydrophilic by increasing the surface free energies, especially γLW and γ -. SOPA (sodium polyacrylate) increased greatly the zeta-potentials instead of the surface free energies.