Investigations on the Reverse Flotation of Quartz/Hematite Using Pullulan as a Novel Depressant

The traditional hematite depressant starch has the disadvantages of poor solubility and high viscosity. In this study, a novel depressant, pullulan, with better performance flotation effect than was found. structure, molecular weight viscosity pullulan were determined for its characterization. results tests revealed that separation hematite-quartz by hematite-quartz. selective depression mechanism on studied contact angle measurement, zeta potential FT-IR analyses XPS analyses. Overall, weak adsorption quartz did not affect DOPA surface. However, it adsorbed strongly surface hindered DOPA. This led to much greater hydrophobicity in reverse flotation, resulting hematite. Pullulan chemical bonding between hydroxyl group iron sites Thus, compared starch, easy dissolve water, had low good effect, so depressant.