As non-renewable natural resources, minerals are essential in a broad range of biological and technological applications. The surface interactions of mineral particles with other objects (e.g., solids, bubbles, reagents) in aqueous suspensions play a critical role in mediating many interfacial phenomena involved in mineral flotation. In this work, we have reviewed the fundamentals of surface forces and quantitative surface property-force relationship of minerals, and the advances in the quantitative measurements of interaction forces of mineral-mineral, bubble-mineral and mineral-reagent using nanomechanical tools such as surface forces apparatus (SFA) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The quantitative correlation between surface properties of minerals at the solid/water interface and their surface interaction mechanisms with other objects in complex aqueous media at the nanoscale has been established. The existing challenges in mineral flotation such as characterization of anisotropic crystal plane or heterogeneous surface, low recovery of fine particle flotation, and in-situ electrochemical characterization of collectorless flotation as well as the future work to resolve the challenges based on the understanding and modulation of surface forces of minerals have also been discussed. This review provides useful insights into the fundamental understanding of the intermolecular and surface interaction mechanisms involved in mineral processing, with implications for precisely modulating related interfacial interactions towards the development of highly efficient industrial processes and chemical additives.

作为不可再生的自然资源，矿物在广泛的生物和技术应用中必不可少。矿物颗粒与水悬浮液中的其他物体（例如，固体、气泡、试剂）的表面相互作用在介导矿物浮选中涉及的许多界面现象中起着关键作用。在这项工作中，我们回顾了矿物的表面力和定量表面性质-力关系的基础，以及使用纳米机械工具如表面力仪（SFA）和原子力显微镜（AFM）。固体/水界面处矿物的表面性质与其在纳米级复杂水介质中与其他物体的表面相互作用机制之间的定量相关性已经建立。矿物浮选现有的挑战，如各向异性晶面或异质表面的表征、细粒浮选回收率低、无收集器浮选的原位电化学表征以及未来基于对矿物浮选的理解和调制来解决这些挑战的工作。还讨论了矿物的表面力。这篇综述提供了对矿物加工中分子间和表面相互作用机制的基本理解的有用见解，