Determination and modulation of the typical interactions among dispersed phases relevant to flotation applications: A...

Flotation is a process involving multi-components, multi-scales, and gas-liquid-solid three phases, where the material separation is achieved based on the difference in surface hydrophobicity of various constituents. In a flotation system, fluids are usually regarded as the continuous phase, while the dispersed phases refer to scattered particles, bubbles, and droplets with low solubility as a dispersion that is surrounded by the aqueous environment. Fundamentally, the interactions among dispersed phases exist throughout the flotation process, and play distinct roles during different periods. For example, the liquid collector-solid, solid-solid, bubble-bubble and gas bubble-solid interactions are closely associated with the particle surface modification, particle behavior, bubble size evolution and separation in flotation, respectively. Therefore, the influences of each stage are all worthy of concern, and should be spared sufficient attention, which requires to formulate a horizontal writing structure. In this review, instead of summarizing all available characterization techniques or measurements, certain typical examples or methods were consciously chosen to perform analysis or comparison, aiming to summarize recent studies on the determination and modulation of dispersed phase interactions. The determination on the interactions among dispersed phases is helpful for fundamentally understanding the microcosmic process connotations, and their modulation contributes to firmly providing macroscopic optimization schemes for practical applications. By integrating some typically available theoretical calculations and experimental measurements related to the dispersed phase interactions, the present article is devoted to revealing the influential factors, finding out the current challenges or knowledge gaps, and affording certain references or suggestions for future investigations.