Hydrophobization of the surface of mineral forms during cryogenic treatment of highly clayey sands

Abstract

The results of experiments in a laboratory flotation device for assessing the effect of cryogenic treatment on the surface properties of natural highly dispersed mineral mixtures, such are high-clay sands, are presented. Experiments have shown that cryogenic treatment of sands significantly increases their hydrophobic properties, which is confirmed by an increase in the yield of the flotation foam product without using collecting reagents, and there is also an increase in the yield of the foam product depending on the number of freeze-thaw cycles. This phenomenon confirms the effect of increased disintegration of highly clayey sands in an air-water environment after cryogenic treatment. An X-ray phase analysis of samples of foam (hydrophobic) and chamber (hydrophilic) products of flotation studies was carried out on an X-ray diffractometer D8 DISCOVER. Analyzes have shown that the separation products contain the same mineral phases, slightly differing in quantity, judging by the intensity of the peaks.

Keywords

• highly clayey sands
• washing
• cryogenic treatment
• freezing
• hydrophobicity
• reagents
• foam product