UV-Vis Study of Mixed Collector Adsorption on Pyrite towards the Better Understanding of the Adsorption Mechanism

This paper discusses the primary collector adsorption onto a sulphide mineral in mixed collector systems to further understand its adsorption mechanism. UV-Vis measurements were performed to identify the primary collector concentration adsorbed on pyrite, and the adsorption kinetics under different conditions were compared to distinguish their difference between single and mixed collector systems. Small amount of secondary collector addition prior to the primary collector addition significantly improved the adsorption kinetics of primary one. The result was explained by the combination of two previously proposed mechanisms (i.e., different adsorption site mechanism and multi-layer product mechanism). This study showed UV-Vis measurement as an effective tool to study mixed collector adsorption behavior.