Technology And Mechanism Of Flotation Separation Of Andalusite And Quartz

Andalusite is a new raw material of refractory material with high quality in China,and high-quality andalusite concentrate has strict requirement to silica impurities.Quartz is one of the most mainly gangue mineral in andalusite ore.Some certain physical properties of quartz,such as specific gravity and magnetism,are very close to those of audalusite.During the beneficiation of andalusite ore of fine particles,flotation is the most effective method to separate andalusite and quartz.This paper mainly deals with three problems.Firstly,andalusite and quartz were systematically carried out in single mineral flotation tests under different pharmaceutical conditions.Secondly,combining the Zeta potential measurement and infrared spectroscopy,this paper studied the mechanism of collector adsorption in the surface of andalusite by using the quantum chemistry simulation software Materials Studio.Lastly,according to the results of tests of single mineral,this paper studied mineral processing of andalusite ore.The results of single mineral flotation test showed that flotation separation of andalusite and quartz was achieved by adopting sodium dodecyl sulfate or sodium lauryl sulfate under strong acidic conditions?pH = 3?.Metal ions in the pulp will impact of floatability of andalusite and quartz.When there existed Al³⁺ in the pulp,andalusite was inhibited to a certain extent,which caused the andalusite recovery reduced.When there existed Fe³⁺ in the pulp,quartz was activated obviously,which caused the quartz recovery increased.Using sodium fluoride could depressed quartz activated by Fe³⁺ with good selectivity.Zeta potential test results showed that in the system of sodium dodecyl sulfate and sodium dodecyl sulfate,the surface potential of the andalusite became lowered sharply.And under the condition of all of the pH value,the tests showed that the surface potential of andalusite were negative.These results indicated that these two types of collectors were available to have strong adsorption on the surface of andalusite.The results of infrared spectroscopy indicated that sodium dodecyl sulfate and sodium dodecyl sulfate adsorbed on the surface of andalusite by chemical absorption.The calculation results based on the surface of the highest activity of andalusite {1 0 0} manifested that structure relaxation at different degree occurred on the surface properties of andalusite,and the surface of aluminum atoms became strongly reacted,which was easy to interact with drug molecules.After the collector adsorbed on the surface of the andalusite {1 0 0},atoms on the surface of andalusite turned out to have slightly downward relaxation and the aluminum atoms had obviously increase their positively charges.Besides,the aluminum atoms absorbed on the surface of andalusite appeared weakening reaction,and the oxygen and silicon atoms on the surface of andalusite changed a little.In the process of drug molecules and andalusite surface,the surface of aluminum atom lost its electron.The results of mineral processing of andalusite ore indicated that by adopting grinding,desliming,flotation and magnetic separation process,and using sulfonic acid sodium and sodium dodecyl sulfate group cooperation as collector,it could have a better separation between andalusite and quartz.The closed-circuit test obtained qualified andalusite concentrate with recovery of 28.35%,grade of Al₂O₃ 56.29%.