Rational design of sodium dodecyl aminopropionate collector for high-efficiency flotation separation of reduction-roasted pyrolusite and diaspore

The magnetization roasting-magnetic separation process can realize the efficient utilization of iron and manganese ore resources, but the magnetic separation of manganese concentrate products often contain a large amount of roasted diaspore products, reducing the grade of manganese concentrate. Therefore, it is significance to separate new generated aluminium oxide from magnetic separation of manganese concentrate products and produce high-quality manganese concentrate. In this paper, sodium dodecyl aminopropionate (SDA) was synthesized and used as a collector for flotation separation of the new generated aluminium oxide from the manganese ore produced by reduction roasting of pyrolusite. The flotation performance and mechanism of SDA collector on the surface of the new generated aluminium oxide and new generated manganosite were studied by density functional theory (DFT) calculation, flotation experiment, Zeta potential measurement, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that under the conditions of pH 11, concentration of SDA 40 mg/L and concentration of CaCl₂ 1600 mg/L, SDA had a good ability to collect new generated aluminium oxide, and the recovery difference between new generated aluminium oxide and new generated manganosite was about 60 %. DFT calculation, Zeta potential, FTIR spectra and XPS confirmed that SDA was adsorbed on the new generated manganosite in a small amount, and the adsorption of SDA on the surface of the new generated aluminium oxide was mainly the chemical adsorption of Ca-O and Al-O bonds.