Influence of bromine modification on collecting property of lauric acid

•A new modified collector α-Bromolauric acid was synthesized for recovery of quartz.•Br atom introduced in α-carbon position of lauric acid leads to a better solubility.•Flotation performance comparison of the collector α-BLA and LA on quartz was done.•Different adsorptions on the quartz was studied, especially the hydrogen adsorption.

Bromine atom with strong electronegativity was introduced to α-carbon position of lauric acid (LA) by solvent-free method (Hell–Volhard–Zelinski reaction) at ambient pressure in laboratory, and the synthesized product α-Bromolauric acid (CH3(CH2)9CHBrCOOH, α-BLA) was used as a new type collector for the flotation of quartz mineral. The flotation properties of pure quartz using α-BLA as a collector were investigated by single mineral flotation tests. The adsorption mechanism of α-BLA collector on quartz surface was established by zeta potential measurements, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), in conjunction with the results of quartz micro-flotation tests. Pure mineral flotation results showed that the collector α-BLA exhibited an excellent performance at alkaline conditions (pH ⩾ 11.50), activator CaCl2 concentration 1.0 × 10−4 mol/L, and collector concentration 1.5 × 10−4 mol/L in a relatively lower temperature 15 °C, where about 99.8% of the quartz could be floated out. Compared with collector LA, the new synthesized collector α-BLA is more tolerant to lower pulp temperature and fluctuations of the reagents dosages. The study revealed that the α-BLA collector had adsorbed on the surface of pure quartz in the forms of chemical interaction, electrostatic adsorption and hydrogen bonding adsorption based on the results of zeta potential measurements, FT-IR spectra, and XPS.