Evaluation of the Performance of Polystyrene Nanoparticles as a Collector for Removal of Silica from Iron Ore by Reverse Flotation

Nanoparticles have a special potential to be used as a co-collector in the flotation process of various minerals. Therefore, in this work, the ability of nano-polystyrene (NP) to facilitate the flotation of Chadormalu iron ore has been investigated. Accordingly, to remove silicon and phosphorus while improving iron content and iron recovery, NP was used as a co-collector in reverse flotation along with dodecylamine cationic and fatty acids anionic collectors. The results showed that NP as a cationic collector with hydrophobic properties is easily adsorbed to quartz anionic particles and by increasing its hydrophobicity, has improved their floating. However, increasing the dose of NP has reduced the flotation of impurities due to the aggregation of NP and the coverage of large areas of mineral particles. The use of gelatinized starch as a depressant in the presence of NP, in addition to reducing the amount of silicon and phosphorus (to 1.1% and 0.052%, respectively), improved the amount of iron and iron recovery (to 68.3% and 89.6%, respectively). The results of this work introduce a new class of special collectors to improve the commercial flotation of iron ore.