Flotation of kaolinite and diaspore with hexadecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride

Tertiary amine was synthesized from fatty amine and formaldehyde. And then the synthesized tertiary amine was used toreact with benzyl chloride to synthesize hexadecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (1627) at ambient pressure. Using thesynthesized 1627 as collector, the flotation properties of diaspore and kaolinite were investigated by single mineral and mixedmineral test. The flotation mechanism of diaspore, kaolinite and 1627 was discussed based on FTIR spectra. The results show that themass ratio of aluminum to silicate achieves 15.02 and the recovery of alumina in concentrate is 43.07% using 1627 as a collector. The 1627 is found to be a more effective and a promising collector for reverse flotation to remove aluminum-silicate minerals frombauxite.