A Comparative Study of Anionic and Cationic Collector in Microbubble-Assisted Flotation for Coarse Quartz Particle

coarse particle flotation has some advantages. However, how the type
of collector affects the recovery of coarse particles under
microbubbles still needs to be clarified. This study compared the
performance and adsorption characteristics of anionic (sodium oleate
- NaOL) and cationic (dodecylamine - DDA) collector environments
for microbubble-assisted flotation of coarse quartz particles. A twofactorial level and Box-Behnken techniques were used for statistical
design for screening and characterizing the performance. The
flotation process utilizing NaOL and DDA was not significantly
affected by froth depth. In the presence and absence of microbubbles,
the performance of DDA surpassed that of NaOL; therefore, the
average recovery of the cationic collector was more than 10% higher
than that of the anionic collector. Contact angle analysis revealed that
NaOL measured approximately 70° while DDA measured around
90°. DDA was adsorbed more significantly than NaOL at the same
collector concentration. Zeta potential was more sensitive to DDA;
increasing both collector concentrations also increased the value of
zeta potential. FT-IR and EDX analyses showed that DDA and NaOL
were chemically adsorbed onto quartz. Overall, this study
demonstrates that DDA outperformed NaOL in the presence and
absence of microbubbles during the flotation of coarse quartz
particles.