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Selective Adsorption Mechanism of Ferric Ions on the Surfaces of Chalcopyrite and Pyrite in Flotation

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Abstract

When copper ores containing pyrite are crushed and ground, many unavoidable Fe3+ ions will be produced and enter the flotation process. At present, the adsorption mechanism of Fe3+ on chalcopyrite and pyrite surfaces is not clear. Here, the adsorption behaviors of Fe3+ on the surfaces of chalcopyrite and pyrite were systematically investigated by micro-flotation tests, infrared spectra studies, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis (XPS), first-principles density functional theory calculations and theoretical analysis of the coordination field. The micro-flotation tests showed that the recovery rate of pyrite reduced with the growth of pH, but the recovery rate of chalcopyrite was basically unchanged. The infrared spectra analysis revealed that the intensities of the characteristic xanthate peaks of the C=S and C-O-C groups in the Fe3+-treated pyrite surface changed more noticeably than those of the xanthate peaks of the Fe3+-treated chalcopyrite. XPS showed that Fe (OH)3 was more easily and spontaneously adsorbed on pyrite than chalcopyrite surfaces. First-principles DFT calculations and electronic structure analysis further showed that pyrite had a stronger adsorption of Fe (OH)3 than chalcopyrite. This work sheds new light on the adsorption mechanism of Fe3+ on the surfaces of chalcopyrite and pyrite during flotation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC2904503); Open Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Mineral Processing (No. BGRIMM-KJSKL-2022-01); The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52074356, No. U20A20269); The Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (2022RC1183); The Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2021JJ20069); 2023 Innovation-driven Plan project of Central South University (No. 2023CXQD002); Changsha Science and Technology Project (Outstanding innovative youth training program); National 111 Project (No. B14034); The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University Project (No. 50621747). The Special fund for Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality science and technology innovation of Jiangsu Province in 2022 (BE2022601). The Computing Platform of Mineral Processing Computational Chemistry at the School of Mineral Processing, Bioengineering at Central South University, and the High-Performance Computing Centers of Central South University were used in part for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education for Carbon Emission Reduction in Metal Resource Exploitation and Utilization, Hunan International Joint Research Center for Efficient and Clean Utilization of Critical Metal Mineral Resources, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Zhang, Chenyang Zhang, Hongliang Zhang, Rong Wang, Mengjie Tian & Wei Sun

  2. State Key Laboratory of Mineral Processing, Beijing, 100160, People’s Republic of China

    Chenyang Zhang

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, People’s Republic of China

    Pan Chen

  4. Key Laboratory of Hunan Province for Comprehensive Utilization of Complex Copper-Lead Zinc Associated Metal Resources, Hunan Nonferrous Metal Research Institute Co. LTD (Hunan Nonferrous Industry Investment Group Co. LTD), Changsha, 410100, People’s Republic of China

    Daixiong Chen

  5. School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning, People’s Republic of China

    Jianhua Chen

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  1. Feng Zhang
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Contributions

FZ: Writing-original draft, software, data curation, writing-review and editing. CZ: Supervision, conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, review and editing. HZ: Formal analysis, software, writing-review and editing. PC: Writing-review and editing, validation, investigation. RW: Writing-review and editing, investigation, validation. DC: Visualization, writing-review and editing, validation. JC: Visualization, writing-review and editing, validation. JC: Data curation, writing-review and editing. MT: Investigation, data curation, writing-review and editing. WS: Visualization, writing-review and editing, validation.

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Correspondence to Chenyang Zhang.

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Zhang, F., Zhang, C., Zhang, H. et al. Selective Adsorption Mechanism of Ferric Ions on the Surfaces of Chalcopyrite and Pyrite in Flotation. JOM 75, 4435–4445 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-06067-z

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