Dynamic vapor sorption - A novel method for measuring the hydrophobicity in industrial-scale froth flotationShow others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: IMPC 2018 - 29th International Mineral Processing Congress, 2019, p. 1552-1560Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
The understanding of particle surface properties is essential for the study and evaluation of froth flotation phenomena, particularly in the investigation of various chemical or reagent effects. Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS) is a method used for the analysis of surface properties of powders for instance in the pharmaceutical industry. To the knowledge of the authors, it has however not been used before in applications related to mineral processing. The DVS technique involves measurement of the water uptake of a relatively small amount of sample as a function of the relative humidity (% RH) in a temperature-controlled environment. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the method and investigate how it can complement existing techniques for surface characterization in mineral processing. Four samples (feed, CuPb concentrate, Cu concentrate and Pb concentrate) from the Cu - Pb flotation process in the Garpenberg concentrator, Sweden, were analyzed by DVS and the traditional capillary absorption technique (Washburn capillary rise). This enabled comparison between the two methods and evaluation of their respective advantages and disadvantages. Both methods give the expected ranking of the hydrophobicity for CuPb concentrate, Cu concentrate and Pb concentrate, but a discrepancy was observed for the feed. Washburn gave a value for the contact angle which was in the same range as for the CuPb concentrate, whereas DVS gave a value for the moisture uptake which was much higher than for the CuPb concentrate. Thus, DVS ranks all samples correctly, but with an unexpectedly high value for the feed whereas Washburn gives good ranking for three samples out of four. Potential reasons for the discrepancies are discussed.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. p. 1552-1560
Keywords [en]
DVS, Dynamic Vapor Sorption, Flotation, Hydrophobicity, Washburn capillary rise, Wettability, Binary alloys, Capillary flow, Contact angle, Copper, Humidity control, Minerals, Sorption, Surface properties, Wetting, Capillary absorption, Capillary rise, Controlled environment, Flotation process, Mineral processing, Pharmaceutical industry, Surface characterization, Froth flotation
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-37018Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85059365066ISBN: 9787030227119 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-37018DiVA, id: diva2:1281055
Conference
29th International Mineral Processing Congress, IMPC 2018, 17 September 2018 through 21 September 2018
2019-01-212019-01-212019-01-21Bibliographically approved