New cognitions into three new classified titanaugite in mineralogical characteristics and fundamental performances. (1st August 2021) - Du, Yusheng
Highlights: Three titanaugite had differences in main (3 1 0), (2 2 0), (2 2 1), and (−2 2 1) surfaces. Titanaugite-3 displayed ferromagnetism compared to paramagnetic titanaugite. Titanaugite-2 and titanaugite-1 emerged the high floatability. Intense surfaces of one's own in three titanaugite caused their floatability differences. Partial titanaugite would be captured along with ilmenite in conventional beneficiation. Abstract: Three new classifications of purified titanaugite named as titanaugite-1, titanaugite-2, and titanaugite-3 were studied in chemical composition and structure, magnetic performance, surface property, and flotation performance. The chemical composition and structure analyses showed that titanaugite-1 with high Al content, titanaugite-2 with high Ca, Mg, and Si contents, and titanaugite-3 with high Fe and Ti contents owned the same crystal structure (Mg, Fe, Al, Ti)(Ca, Mg, Fe)(Si, Al)2 O6, but displayed some differences in main (3 1 0), (2 2 0), (2 2 1), and (−2 2 1) surfaces. The magnetic performance analyses presented that the specific susceptibilities of ferromagnetic titanaugite-3 and paramagnetic titanaugite-2 were greater than that of paramagnetic titanaugite-1. The surface property analyses confirmed that the isoelectric points (IEP) of titanaugite-2 (pH = 5.70) and titanaugite-1 (pH = 4.15) exhibited the positive shifts than that of the titanaugite-3 (pH = 3.73). The flotation performance analyses demonstrated that the floatability differences of three titanaugite were corresponding to the adsorption differences of NaOL on their surfaces, in turn, titanaugite-2 > titanaugite-1 > titanaugite-3. Meanwhile, the differences of interaction energies of NaOL on different surfaces of titanaugite were (3 1 0) < (2 2 0) < (2 2 1) < (−2 2 1). Titanaugite-2, titanaugite-1, and titanaugite-3 owed the surfaces of (3 1 0), (2 2 0), and (−2 2 1) with intense diffraction peaks, respectively, which was matched with their floatability differences. This study provided a novel understanding of these mutative titanaugite and their ore properties.