Novel Sulfo Fatty Acid for Flotation Separation of Carbonates Against Phosphate Rocks

Abstract

We designed and synthesized a novel sulfo fatty acid (SSA) which demonstrated high selectivity and strong collecting capacity for the beneficiation of phosphate ore by reverse flotation. The SSA collector was investigated to float single minerals and real phosphate ore. The collecting performance on minerals was interpreted by means of adsorption amount measurement, zeta potential measurement, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis. The appropriate pH value for the single minerals flotation was close to pH 5 at which dolomite presents quite good floatability while apatite exhibit very poor floatability. The performance of SSA and oleic acid used for the real phosphate ore flotation was compared, and the critical factors of phosphate ore flotation were investigated. It was found that the novel SSA achieved superior results, causing dolomite adsorbing reagent in larger amount than apatite.