Abstract: In order to study the influence and mechanism of aerosol treatment of butyl xanthate on the flotation effect of pyrite, the single mineral flotation experiment of pyrite was carried out with aerosolized butyl xanthate as collector. The pyrite treated by butyl xanthate before and after aerosol treatment was characterized by conductivity, infrared spectroscopy and XPS. The results showed that the aerosolized butyl xanthate could significantly increase the content of the active ingredient dixanthogen in butyl xanthate and the flotation effect of pyrite. The recovery of pyrite was 57.20% at the mass concentration of butyl xanthate of 15 mg/L, which could increase the recovery of pyrite by 16.47 percentage points compared with that of untreated. Aerosolization treatment of butyl xanthate can increase the dissolved oxygen concentration in the butyl xanthate solution. Dissolved oxygen not only promote, the formation of dixanthogen in the solution, but also enhanced the collection effect of butyl xanthate on pyrite. It also affected the degree of oxidation reaction of pyrite, and the proportion of hydrophobic elemental sulfur increased 7.61%, which was beneficial to improve the floatability of pyrite. In addition, due to the increase of the adsorption amount of aerosolized butyl xanthate on the surface of pyrite, the hydrophobic group −C₄H₉ on the surface of pyrite increased, which improved the hydrophobicity of pyrite. The research provides a reference for aerosol flotation technology in the field of flotation.