Abstract The influence of an inorganic salt dispersant, sodium silicate (SS), on the removal of minerals in coal slime flotation was investigated. XRD, contact angle measurements, zeta potential measurements and EDLVO calculations were employed to reveal the interactions between SS and coal slime. The flotation experiments indicated that the combustible matter recovery of clean coal could be increased by 10.9 % with the addition of 1200 g/t SS. The reasons of SS on facilitating the separation of the combustible components from coal slime were governed by two factors, decreasing the hydrophobicity of minerals and enhancing particle dispersion, both of which are beneficial to the coal flotation. Furthermore, it was found that the effect of SS on decreasing the hydrophobicity of minerals was mainly attributed to the surface modification on kaolinite. It was concluded that SS could significantly improve the flotation recovery of coal slime especially under the condition of a high content of kaolinite in coal slime.

中文翻译：

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添加硅酸钠提高煤泥浮选可燃物回收率

摘要 研究了无机盐分散剂硅酸钠 (SS) 对煤泥浮选去除矿物质的影响。XRD、接触角测量、zeta 电位测量和 EDLVO 计算被用来揭示 SS 和煤泥之间的相互作用。浮选实验表明，加入1200 g/t SS，精煤的可燃物回收率可提高10.9%。SS促进煤泥中可燃组分分离的原因有两个因素，即降低矿物的疏水性和增强颗粒分散性，两者都有利于煤的浮选。此外，发现SS降低矿物疏水性的作用主要归因于对高岭石的表面改性。