Flotation behavior and adsorption mechanism of salicylhydroxamic acid in artificial mineral anosovite

Flotation is often employed to separate valuable natural minerals and gangue minerals. However, few studies have been conducted on artificial mineral flotation. Anosovite, the primary mineral in titanium slag, is a typical artificial mineral that can be enriched by flotation. In the present work, flotation behavior and adsorption mechanism of anosovite in salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) solution were studied. The influence of pH and SHA dosage on anosovite flotability was investigated. Micro-flotation test results show that a pH range of 7–8.5 is available for SHA to collect anosovite. A maximum recovery of 93.26% can be obtained with SHA dosage of only 4×10−5 mol/L. In addition, TOC, zeta potential, FTIR, SEM-EDS, and XPS analyses were used to study the adsorption mechanism. Results demonstrated that SHA adsorption is governed by chemisorption. XPS studies further suggested that chemical adsorption occurred at the Ti sites on the anosovite surface.