Abstract
It is important to clarify the flocculation phenomena for the mineral processing such as waste water treatment. For this object, experiments on the flocculation phenomena have been carried out using quartz and fluorite particles which are negatively and positively charged in distilled water, respectively. In the present study, suspensions containing the particles smaller than 4.6μm (fine particle suspension) and larger than 9.3μm (coarse particle suspension) are prepared to understand the flocculation phenomena of the mixture of fine quartz-fine fluorite particles, fine quartz-coarse fluorite particles, fine fluorite-coarse quartz particles and coarse quartz-coarse fluorite particles in the different pH values. It is found that fine quartz and fluorite particles homo-flocculate at pH about 2 and pH over 11, while coarse quartz and fluorite particles do not homo-flocculate at all pH range. In the experiments conducted with the mixture of fine quartz and fluorite particles in equal proportion, the electric gravitation between them has led to the hetero-flocculation at all pH range. When fine quartz and coarse fluorite particles are mixed, it is considered that the hetero-flocculation such as coarse particles are coated with fine particles would occur at all pH values. Besides, homo-flocculation of fine quartz particles can be also observed at pH about 2. In case of the mixture of fine fluorite and coarse quartz particles, the hetero-flocculation such as coarse particles are coated with fine particles and homo-flocculation of fine fluorite particles are supposed to occur at all pH values and at all pH values, respectively. Remarkable flocculation phenomena can not be seen in mixing coarse quartz and coarse fluorite particles at all pH values.
