Depressant effect on titanaugite by silicon-containing depressants

Using sodium oleate as collector,the effects of sodium fluorosilicate and water glass on floatation behavior of fine ilmenite and titanaugite were investigated. The results show that,using the water glass as depressant in the weak acidic system with pH of 5?6,the ilmenite and titanaugite can be successfully separated by flotation in practical ore experiment. The results of adsorption measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) show that the mechanism of selective separation of ilmenite by the water glass,namely,the water glass can effectively prevent the adsorption of sodium oleate onto the surface of titanaugite,while it shows little effect on the adsoption of sodium oleate onto ilmenite,which is the basis for flotation separation of both of minerals. Above-mentioned mechanism comes from the formed chemical bonds between the water glass and Fe,Mg and Al atoms on the surface of titanaugite,which effectively increases the hydrophilicity of titanaugite,as a result,reducing the adsorption of collector on titanaugite.