I. Overview The resource crisis has become the primary issue in today's world, making resource recycling and utilization even more crucial at all times. There is an increasing demand for higher efficiency in recovering resources from natural environments and industrial wastewater. With the rise in metal demand and the decline in ore grades, as metal resources are on the brink of depletion, developing efficient methods for ore processing has become a significant research topic globally. Hydrometallurgy will continue to provide new methods for processing ore. Flotation, a method of material separation using bubbles as the medium, has long been used for mineral separation. However, in recent years, flotation is not only used for mineral separation but also for separating various solid substances, even for separating solvents from solutions, making its applications very extensive [1]. The research and development, as well as the practical application, of flotation reagents, which are surface-active agents for collectors, have seen significant progress in recent years. Attention has begun to shift directly to ionic flotation and solvent extraction as efficient methods for metal recovery. Many studies have been conducted on the use of ionic surfactants for flotation of metal ions, including the removal of harmful metal ions from factory effluents, separating radioactive materials from nuclear reactors, and recovering valuable metal ions.
Section II: Mineral Flotation Mineral flotation, a process within the mineral processing field, involves the separation and concentration of minerals from a pulp based on their hydrophobic differences. This process is referred to as froth flotation or simply flotation. During the flotation process, ore from the mill is treated with various organic or inorganic chemical reagents and mixed with air in the pulp. Minerals that easily adhere to bubbles rise to the surface, while those that do not remain in the pulp, achieving the goal of separating and concentrating valuable minerals. The flotation process is a complex physical-chemical process with its theoretical foundation directly based on surface chemistry, colloid chemistry, crystallography, and physics. Flotation reagents, on the other hand, represent an interdisciplinary science established between flotation and basic organic chemistry. Since the 20th century, the development of flotation reagents internationally has shown that many flotation agents have close relationships with analytical chemistry, often being first used as analytical reagents. Having proven effective as metal ion quantitative reagents in analytical chemistry, they are then applied in froth flotation as flotation reagents. Section III: Flotation Reagents The various reagents used in the flotation process are collectively known as flotation reagents. Many of these reagents are organic compounds, including a significant number of surfactants. Flotation reagents can be broadly categorized into three main types based on their primary use: frothers, collectors, and adjusters (which include activators and inhibitors). The use of surfactants in mineral processing has a long history and is still widely utilized and researched today. Applications of surfactants in the mining industry include mineral processing, mine safety, fire prevention, dust suppression, as well as stabilizers or coagulants in coal flotation and surface treatment agents for ore. Among the surfactants used in mining, non-ionic surfactants account for 50%, followed by cationic surfactants at 30%, and anionic surfactants at 10%.
