Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate whether commercially available mixtures of the 18-carbon fatty acids could be used as flotation reagents for oxide minerals. These fatty acids are relatively insoluble, but the unsaturated fatty acids are known to have good collecting properties under alkaline pH conditions. Flotation recovery of a sample of hematite using these fatty acids was investigated over a wide pH range. Chemisorption was identified as the dominant mechanism of adsorption in the alkaline pH range, but physical adsorption of negatively charged surfactant moieties could well contribute to hematite flotation in the acidic pH region. There appeared to be a controversy between the higher collecting power of the surfactants with an increasing number of double bonds/molecule and their associated increased hydrophilic character and susceptibility to oxidation. It was shown that commercially available mixtures of 18-carbon unsaturated fatty acids are suitable flotation reagents for use in the recovery of oxide minerals giving high mineral recoveries.

中文翻译：

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18碳脂肪酸浮选赤铁矿

摘要 本研究的目的是研究市售的 18 碳脂肪酸混合物是否可用作氧化物矿物的浮选剂。这些脂肪酸相对不溶，但已知不饱和脂肪酸在碱性 pH 条件下具有良好的收集特性。在很宽的 pH 范围内研究了使用这些脂肪酸对赤铁矿样品的浮选回收率。化学吸附被确定为碱性 pH 范围内的主要吸附机制，但带负电荷的表面活性剂部分的物理吸附可以很好地促进赤铁矿在酸性 pH 范围内的浮选。随着双键/分子数量的增加，表面活性剂的更高收集能力与其相关的亲水特性和氧化敏感性之间似乎存在争议。结果表明，市售的 18 碳不饱和脂肪酸混合物是适用于回收氧化物矿物的合适浮选试剂，可提供高矿物回收率。