Molecular dynamics simulation analysis of solutions and surfaces in nonsulfide flotation systems

Traditionally, mineral processing is an important area of the metallurgical engineering discipline and is, itself, a broad field that deals with the processing of mineral resources, including metallic, nonmetallic, and energy resources. Separation and concentration of mineral values generally are done from aqueous particulate suspensions; consequently, the study of the physicochemical properties of solutions and surfaces is critical for the development of improved processing technology (Fuerstenau et al. 2007). Similar to other scientific domains, advanced understanding is heavily dependent on the development of analytical methodologies and instrumentation. For example, froth flotation is one of the key technologies in mineral processing, and since its discovery in 1911, significant improvements have been made due to advanced analytical methodologies such as surface tension measurement, surface wettability determination, surface charge evaluation, and surfacestate analysis by spectroscopic techniques (Bryant 1996; Dang 1997; Dillon and Dougherty 2002; Jiang and Sandler 2003; Kaminsky 1957; Luck 1973; Luck and Schioeberg 1979; Max and Chapados 2000, 2001; Nickolov and Miller 2005; Smith and Dang 1994a; Terpstra et al. 1990). Beginning in the 1990s, the rapid development of computer science and information technology has triggered the use of a large number of computer-aided instruments in scientific research, and some of them, such as atomic force microscopy (Bakshi et al. 2004; Miller and Paruchuri 2004; Nalaskowski et al. 2003) and sum frequency vibrational spectroscopy (Du et al. 2008; Nickolov et al. 2004; Wang et al. 2009), have been used in mineral-processing research due to their advantages in providing molecular level information regarding the physicochemical properties of solutions and surfaces.