Anisotropic surface broken bond properties and wettability of calcite and fluorite crystals

Anisotropic surface broken bond densities of six different surfaces of calcite and three surfaces of fluorite were calculated. In terms of the calculated results, the commonly exposed surfaces of the two minerals were predicted and the relations between surface broken bonds densities and surface energies were analyzed. Then the anisotropic wettability of the commonly exposed surfaces was studied by means of contact angle measurement. The calculation results show that the, and surfaces for calcite and (111) for fluorite are the most commonly exposed surfaces and there is a good rectilinear relation between surface broken bond density and surface energy with correlation of determination (R2) of 0.9613 and 0.9969, respectively. The anisotropic wettability of different surfaces after immersing in distilled water and sodium oleate solutions at different concentrations can be explained by anisotropic surface broken bond densities and active Ca sites densities, respectively.