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Effect of three typical sulfide mineral flotation collectors on soil microbial activity

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Abstract

The sulfide mineral flotation collectors are wildly used in China, whereas their toxic effect on soil microbial activity remains largely unexplored. In this study, isothermal microcalorimetric technique and soil enzyme assay techniques were employed to investigate the toxic effect of typical sulfide mineral flotation collectors on soil microbial activity. Soil samples were treated with different concentrations (0–100 μg•g − 1 soil) of butyl xanthate, butyl dithiophosphate, and sodium diethyldithiocarbamate. Results showed a significant adverse effect of butyl xanthate (p < 0.05), butyl dithiophosphate, and sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (p < 0.01) on soil microbial activity. The growth rate constants k decreased along with the increase of flotation collectors concentration from 20.0 to 100.0 μg•g−1. However, the adverse effects of these three floatation collectors showed significant difference. The IC 20 of the investigated flotation reagents followed such an order: IC 20 (butyl xanthate) > IC 20 (sodium diethyldithiocarbamate) > IC 20 (butyl dithiophosphate) with their respective inhibitory concentration as 47.03, 38.36, and 33.34 μg•g−1. Besides, soil enzyme activities revealed that these three flotation collectors had an obvious effect on fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis (FDA) enzyme and catalase (CAT) enzyme. The proposed methods can provide meaningful toxicological information of flotation reagents to soil microbes in the view of metabolism and biochemistry, which are consistent and correlated to each other.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported in part by grants from the International Joint Key Project from Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (2010DFB23160), Key project from National Science Foundation of China (41430106), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41273092), Public welfare project of Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection (201409042), and Overseas, Hong Kong and Macau Young Scholars Collaborative Research Fund (41328005). We gratefully acknowledge all the supports provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and National International Cooperation Base on Environment and Energy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30 Xueyuan Road, 100083, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Zunwei Guo, Jun Yao, Fei Wang, Zhimin Yuan, P. Bararunyeretse & Yue Zhao

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  1. Zunwei Guo
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  2. Jun Yao
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  3. Fei Wang
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  5. P. Bararunyeretse
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  6. Yue Zhao
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Correspondence to Jun Yao.

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Responsible editor: Robert Duran

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Guo, Z., Yao, J., Wang, F. et al. Effect of three typical sulfide mineral flotation collectors on soil microbial activity. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 7425–7436 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5899-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5899-z

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