Developing Effective Separation of Feldspar and Quartz While Recycling Tailwater by HF Pretreatment

The effect of hydrofluoric acid (HF) pretreatment on flotation of feldspar and quartz using dodecylamine (DDA) as collector was investigated by micro-flotation, zeta potential, pyrene fluorescence spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection flourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and bench scale flotation. The micro-flotation tests revealed that there was little difference in the flotation of feldspar and quartz at pH 2, using H2SO4 as pH regulator. After HF pretreatment, the floatability of feldspar significantly increased while the floatability of quartz showed no change. HF pretreatment resulted in leaching of SiO2 and enrichment of Na, K and Al on the feldspar surface. Consequently, the negative surface charge of feldspar increased at pH 2, which allowed for the flotation separation of the feasible minerals. This took place via an increased electrostatic adsorption between DDA and Na, K, Al on the feldspar surface, which effectively increased its hydrophobicity and as a result, improved the floatability of feldspar. An alternative process which exhibited effective separation of quartz and feldspar while recycling the tailwater from the flotation was proposed.