New insights into the beneficial roles of dispersants in reducing negative influence of Mg2+ on molybdenite flotation

Abstract

Due to the shortage of freshwater, seawater has been widely considered for mineral flotation. However, the presence of Mg²⁺ in seawater plays an apparently negative role. In this work, two dispersants (i.e., sodium silicate (SS) and sodium hexametaphosphate (SH)) were applied to reduce the detrimental effects of Mg²⁺ on the flotation of molybdenite (MoS₂). Various measurements including contact angle, zeta potential, FTIR and XPS were carried out to understand the impacts of these two dispersants on MoS₂ flotation. Results indicate that both dispersants prevented the adsorption of colloidal Mg(OH)₂ onto MoS₂ surface under alkaline conditions, thereby improving MoS₂ floatability. In addition, both dispersants are physically adsorbed on MoS₂ surface, but chemically adsorbed on Mg(OH)₂ surface. In addition, the extended Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (DLVO) calculation suggests that both SS and SH reverse the total interaction energies between MoS₂ and colloidal Mg(OH)₂ from negative (attraction force) to positive (repulsive force), with the impact of SH being more significant.