Analyzing the flotation kinetics of long-flame coal slurry using water-soluble emulsified collector mixtures

This article investigates the variations in flotation responses of long-flame coal using emulsified collector mixtures, utilizing various flotation kinetic (FK) models for analysis. The fitting process was carried out using the Origin software. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results indicated that as the number of adjacent H atoms increased, the absorption peak on the surface of long-flame coal, processed by various emulsified collector mixtures, gradually shifted towards short-wave numbers. Moreover, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results suggested that COC/COH groups on the coal surface could form hydrogen bonds with oxygen-containing functional groups (OCFGs) in the surfactant molecular structure. Furthermore, the hydrophobic groups of the benzene ring in 4-dodecyl phenol (4-DDP) could adsorb onto the coal surfaces through π-π bonds, enhancing the surface hydrophobicity of long-flame coal. Moreover, the flotation performance of long-flame coal was significantly improved using the emulsified mixture of kerosene and 4-DDP, achieving a peak recovery of 39.86 %. The second-order model with a rectangular distribution of floatability led to an excellent fitting to the flotation process of long-flame coal when employing the emulsified mixtures.