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Selective Adsorption Mechanism of Zinc Ions on the Surfaces of Galena and Sphalerite in the Flotation Separation of Pb-Zn

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Abstract

In this study, selective adsorption mechanism of zinc ions on the surfaces of galena and sphalerite in the flotation separation of Pb-Zn was comprehensively explored by flotation tests, Zeta potential measurements, Fourier transform interferometric radiometer (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Microflotation test showed that the use of ZnSO4 in alkaline pulp could selectively separate galena from sphalerite better than that without ZnSO4. Zeta potential test results showed that ZnSO4 could significantly increase the Zeta potential of sphalerite under alkaline conditions, but had little effect on galena. The results of FTIR test showed that xanthan characteristic peak appeared in xanthate-treated galena at pH = 10, while sphalerite treated with xanthate did not. XPS and DFT calculation results showed that sphalerite had stronger adsorption capacity for hydroxyl ions than galena. DFT calculation further confirmed that Zn(OH)2 could be adsorbed on the surface of hydroxylated sphalerite instead of hydroxylated galena and formed a new interface microstructure of sphalerite (Znsurf-O-Zn-O-H), resulting in the inhibition of sphalerite. This paper further deepened the selective adsorption mechanism of zinc ions on the surface of sphalerite in the flotation separation of Pb-Zn under alkaline conditions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2022YFC2904503); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52074356, U20A20269); the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (No. 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; National 111 Project (No. B14034); the Special Fund for Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Science and Technology Innovation of Jiangsu Province in 2022 (No. BE2022601); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University Project (No. 50621747). This work was carried out in part using hardware and/or software provided by the Computing Platform of Mineral Processing Computational Chemistry at School of Mineral Processing and Bioengineering of Central South University, the High-Performance Computing Centers of Central South University, and Tianhe II supercomputer at the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou.

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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, China

    Feng Zhang, Wei Sun, Hongliang Zhang & Chenyang Zhang

  2. 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, China

    Daixiong Chen & Chenyang Zhang

  3. China Railway Resource Group Co. Ltd, Beijing, 102300, China

    Songjiang Li

  4. School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China

    Jianhua Chen

  5. State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming, 650093, China

    Chenyang Zhang

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FZ Writing–original draft, Formal analysis, Software, Writing—review & editing. WS Visualization, Writing—review & editing, Validation. HZ Visualization, Writing—review & editing; DC Visualization, Writing—review & editing, Validation. SC Visualization, Writing—review & editing, Validation. JC Visualization, Writing—review & editing, Validation. CZ Writing—original draft, Supervision, Conceptualization, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Writing—review & editing.

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This article has been corrected. In the DFT calculations of the methodology section the sentence “The H2O, SBX, and Zn(OH)2 were pre-optimized in a cubic cell of 20 × 20 × 20 Å3 using the k-point of gamma and cutoff energy of 370 eV.” was changed to “The H2O, OH−, and Zn(OH)2 were pre-optimized in a cubic cell of 20 × 20 × 20 Å3 using the k-point of gamma and cutoff energy of 400 eV.”.

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Zhang, F., Sun, W., Zhang, H. et al. Selective Adsorption Mechanism of Zinc Ions on the Surfaces of Galena and Sphalerite in the Flotation Separation of Pb-Zn. JOM 75, 4808–4818 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-06098-6

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