Relationship Between Hydrophobicity Of Galena And Eh-ph Diagrams For Xanthate Collectors

The new Eh-pH diagrams have been built for alkyl xanthate systems using newvalues of free energy for lead alkyl xanthates reported recently (Robledo-Cabrera,2015). These diagrams are compared with those built using old data ofKakovsky(1957). They show a smaller stability region for lead alkyl xanthate and alower pH value for the transition of hydrophobic lead alkyl xanthate to thehydrophilic species (HPbO4-) of the new reported for Robledo-Cabrera. On the otherhand, though the pure galena contact angle test and floatation test clearly indicate thatthe Eh-pH diagram built using Robledo-Cabrera et al, predict better the experimentalresults then the Eh-pH diagram obtained from Kakovsky data.Though the potential regulation and control of pure galena flotation collector andjoin the collector in the flotation test showed that under the appropriate pulp potential,galena flotation can be carried out without collector, when the pulp solution pH valueincreases, the recovery rate of galena peak move to reduce the pulp potential direction,and the maximum recovery rate decreases, these results with the newly established Eh-pH diagram prediction consistent with each other.The pure galena contact Angle test and flotation tests show that for the differentalkyl xanthate collector, as a growing number of alkyl carbon atoms in the xanthate,hydrophobicity of galena and floatability are increasing; For the same alkyl xanthatecollector, as the xanthate in the pulp concentration increasing, the galena hydrophobicand floatability gradually increased. These results with the new set up galena-xanthatesystems Eh-pH diagram of galena hydrophobic and floatability prediction isconsistent with each other.