Study On The Mechanism Of Action Of Novel Combined Inhibitors In The Separation Of Copper And Zinc

As important raw materials for the development of the national economy,copper and zinc metals are widely used in more than 100 industries such as transportation,metallurgy,and power.With the development of society,the consumption of copper and zinc metals has increased year by year,and it is urgent to increase the productivity and comprehensive utilization of copper and zinc resources.However,the flotation separation of copper-zinc minerals has been a major problem that plagues today's ore dressing industry.Most copper-zinc ore in China is a fine-grained disseminated ore.Copper-zinc minerals in copper-zinc concentrates contain each other very seriously,and sphalerite activated by copper ions can hardly be effectively suppressed.In general,the reasons for the difficulty in separation of copper and zinc sulfides can be roughly divided into the following three categories:(1)Copper and zinc minerals are densely symbiotic,and it is difficult to dissociate the monomers,which makes separation difficult,even if the fineness of the ore reaches the condition of monomer dissociation,the ore particles are very fine due to over-grinding.Copper particles and other particles will be more easily dissolved to generate unavoidable ions into the mineral and water mixed slurry,In addition,copper ions make similar surfaces of sphalerite and chalcopyrite,which makes the separation of copper and zinc difficult.(2)There are staggered differences in the floatability of the ore.For complex copper-zinc ore,there are copper minerals with good floatability and poor floatability simultaneously exist in copper minerals,there are also zinc minerals with good floatability and poor floatability simultaneously exist in zinc minerals,This floating stagger phenomenon is an important reason for the difficulty in separating copper and zinc minerals.(3)The copper-zinc mixed ore often contains a large amount of pyrite,pyrrhotite and slime,which is also an important factor affecting the separation of copper-zinc minerals.At present,although some progress has been made in the research of copper-zinc sulfide ore flotation theory,the application of copper-zinc flotation separation technology is still not ideal.There are only a few mines in China that can effectively achieve copper-zinc separation,and the production indicators are also At a lower level.In this thesis,pure minerals of chalcopyrite and sphalerite are used as flotation research objects.According to the difference in floatability between the two,different inhibitors are selected for the conditional test.The inhibitors with strong inhibitory ability to sphalerite and weak inhibitory ability to chalcopyrite were screened out.The single inhibitor flotation test results show that the inhibitory effect of the inhibitor on the sphalerite activated by copper ions when used alone is:LAC>CaO>ZnSO₄.The flotation test of the combined inhibitor also shows that adding LAC can have a good separation effect on copper and zinc minerals.When the conventional combination inhibitors ZnSO₄ and CaO are used in combination,the recovery rate of sphalerite is47%under the optimal dosage conditions,and when the two agents of LAC and CaO are used in combination,the recovery rate of Sphalerite is only 3.31%.In this paper,a series of modern analysis and testing methods are used to explore the inhibition mechanism of sphalerite by LAC and its combined inhibitors.The test results show that the inhibitor LAC can significantly reduce the contact angle of the sphalerite,effectively promote the micro-dissolution of the sphalerite surface and react with Zn²⁺and Cu²⁺on the surface of the sphalerite(Cu²⁺activation)to form complexes,which can significantly reduce The adsorption amount of isobutyl sodium xanthate;a large amount of white particles were generated on the surface of the sphalerite(Cu²⁺activation)after ZnSO₄ and CaO,it is speculated that Zn(OH)₂ and Ca(OH)₂ were formed.After its combined inhibitor action,the surface of sphalerite(Cu²⁺activation)is covered with a large number of continuous small white particles and floc,which is presumed to be C₂₂H₁₁O₁₁Zn]ZnS precipitation,other than that LAC and copper ions will also form copper-containing complex,these hydrophilic substances are adsorbed on the surface of sphalerite,making them hydrophilic and inhibited.Therefore,the flotation separation of copper and zinc minerals can be effectively achieved by using LAC and its combined inhibitors.