Kaile Zhao's research while affiliated with Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and other places

... ESCALAB 250Xi (Thermo Fisher, Waltham, USA) was used to measure and analyze the chemical states of chalcopyrite and galena surface elements before and after MA/AA treatment, using contaminant carbon (C1 at 284.8 eV) to calibrate all elements' binding energies [25][26][27]. To prepare samples for analysis, 2 g of mineral samples were added into a 40 mL aqueous solution with a MA/AA concentration of 30 mg/L. ...

... In flotation of various sulfide ores such as galena, sphalerite, copper-nickel sulfide, and pyrite, quartz is often considered a gangue mineral (Liu et al., 2013;Zhao et al., 2020;Mweene et al., 2021;Nowosiel et al., 2022). Moreover, quartz is naturally hydrophilic and it has a large surface electronegativity above pH ~ 2, 5 . ...

... For pure bastnaesite, the bands at 1425 cm −1 , 1073 cm −1 , 854 cm −1 , and 728 cm −1 were ascribed to the anti-symmetric stretching, symmetric stretching, out-of-plane bending, and in-plane bending vibrations of the -CO 3 2− group, respectively ( Figure 9) [5,32]. Additionally, no noticeable shifts in the characteristic peaks or the new absorption peaks were observed for bastnaesite following SA treatment. ...

... Glucan, as a new depressant for the flotation separation of pyrite and pyrophyllite, was the subject of MD simulations. 270 Due to its hydrophilic −OH group, the depressant prefers to act differentially with respect to the Al atoms of pyrophyllite and Fe of FeS 2 . ...

... Cellulose is another common biopolymer after starch and consists of β-1, 4 glucans when compared to α-1, 4 glucans in native starch. Meanwhile, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is the main derivative of cellulose where the H atom is replaced by functional acidic groups (-COO-), forming a carboxymethyl (-CH 2 -COO) as illustrated in Figure 5 ( Zhao et al. 2019). Depending on the degree of substitution (DS), the incorporated functional groups enhance the hydrophilic tendency of cellulose and induce an ionic or polyelectrolytic character on the structure matrix. ...

... The application of SA in flotation has been studied in detail. Gu et al. adopted SA to inhibit talc, which led to a reduction in the dosage of the inhibitor carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and an increase in the recovery of copper-nickel sulphide [16]. Using SA as an inhibitor, Pan et al. achieved the flotation separation of chalcopyrite from chlorite and serpentine, lithium pyroxene from feldspar, galena from chalcopyrite, and scheelite and apatite from calcite [17][18][19]. ...

... Its sensitivity to temperature significantly reduces its flotation effect in alpine areas [14]. In order to improve the difficulty of NaOl in dissolving at low temperatures, the research shows that the synergistic effect of two or more mixed collectors can better adapt to the environment the synergistic effect of two or more mixed collectors can better adapt to the environment of low-temperature flotation and realize the effective separation of diaspore and kaolinite [15,16]. Tert dodecyl mercaptan (TDM) is a non-ionic surfactant that can reduce the surface tension of the oil-water interface and improve the low-temperature solubility and selectivity of the collector [17,18]. ...

... Investigation on pure talc flotation showed that it could float easily [13,41] in a collectorless flotation system by adding frothers (alcohols) [39,[58][59][60]. However, various collectors could be considered for the talc selective flotation separation in complex ores [46]. When using xanthate as a collector, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) test results indicated that the collector was physically adsorbed on the talc surface, and adsorption would be negligible. ...

... After the addition of bacteria, the pH rose for the first few days in all three experimental sets followed by a gradual decrease till sixth day. The initial increase in pH is either due to the consumption of H + for metal oxidation or secretion of an alkaline substance by bacteria to maintain pH homeostasis (Zhao et al., 2017). In the later stages of the experiment, sulfuric acid is produced as a result of the bio-oxidation of sulphide, which lowers the pH of the solution. ...

... According to the literature, some common or widely studied techniques of biopolymers modifications are oxidation, carboxymethylation and hydroxypropylation (Zhao et al. 2017). Apart from differences in modification techniques, the type of biopolymers and the reaction condition also influence the resulting structures and functional features of the derivatives. ...