Study on a novel hydroxamic acid as the collector of rhodochrosite

A novel collector, tert-butyl benzohydroxamic acid (TBHA), was first introduced in rhodochrosite flotation. The performance of TBHA was investigated by the density functional theory (DFT) calculation along with the micro flotation test, zeta potential determination and XPS analysis, compared with benzohydroxamic acid (BHA). TBHA has stronger affinity to the mineral than BHA in terms of frontier molecular orbital, atomic net charge and bond population. The substitution of tert-butyl group on the benzene ring improves the affinity of the hydroxamic acid to the mineral. TBHA exhibits excellent collecting ability to rhodochrosite with a recovery of about 99% at a concentration of 3.89×10-4 mol/dm3 and pH 6.5. The hydroxamic acid molecules are adhered on mineral surfaces by chemical adsorption, resulting in negative shifts for the zeta potential of rhodochrosite with the presence of the collector. Chemical adsorption can be also confirmed from XPS analyses that the atomic concentration ratios of C and O to Mn on the treated mineral surfaces were increased and the binding energy of Mn3s was decreased. The experimental data achieve excellent agreement with the computational analyses.