Efficient Separation of Newly Generated Magnetite and Quartz Using a New Collector, Sodium Dodecyl Aminopropionate

The hydrogen-based ore phase of hematite is transformed into nascent magnetite through reduction roasting, but it has the problem of high silicon content. For this reason, in this paper, the flotation process was adopted for newly generated magnetite, effectively separating the iron concentrate from newly generated quartz. Sodium dodecyl aminopropionate (SDA), used in the flotation test, is a new type of collector with amino and carboxyl groups and strong water solubility. The test results show that SDA has the best collection effect on magnetite when the pH is 11, the collector dosage is 143.75 mg/L, and the calcium ion dosage is 30 mg/L. The adsorption mechanism between SDA and magnetite was revealed by density functional theory calculation, zeta potential, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) detection methods; that is, calcium ions will chelate with oxygen in the carboxyl group of SDA to produce Ca-O bonds, thereby forming a stable quaternary ring structure, which is the key to the selective collection of magnetite by SDA.