Application of ionic liquids as novel collectors with low-foam viscous in flotation separation of quartz and magnesite

Application of quaternary ammonium based ionic liquids as a novel flotation collector with low-foam viscosity of quartz has been investigated. The flotation behavior, foam performance and surface properties of quartz flotation with mono-2-ethylhexyl (2-Ethylhexyl)phosphonate-dodecyl trimethyl ammonium (P507-N12111) as collector were studied by microbubble flotation experiments, foam collapse experiments, scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), contact angle, X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and fourier transforming infrared spectra (FT-IR) spectrometer analysis. The foam collapse performance analysis showed that ionic liquid (P507-N12111) has better defoaming performance and foam performance. The micro-flotation results demonstrated that P507-N12111 exhibited a good application potential as a collector for desilication of magnesite and quartz by reverse flotation. Under the optimum flotation conditions of pulp pH 11 and 20 mg/L P507-N12111, the MgO grade and recovery of concentrate were 43 % and 98.7 %, respectively. The analysis of SEM-EDS confirmed that P507-N12111 was adsorbed on the surface of quartz. The results of contact angle analysis demonstrated that P507-N12111 increased the hydrophobicity difference between quartz and magnesite. The FT-IR and XPS analysis also confirmed that the O on the surface of quartz participated in the adsorption process, and the selective adsorption of cations from P507-N12111 on the surface of quartz was driven by electrostatic affinity.