Research Status of Nanobubble Enhanced Flotation Mechanism of Ultrafine Particles

Nanobubble flotation is one of the effective technologies for recovering fine minerals, which has the advantages of energy saving, convenience and low drug consumption. At present, nanobubble flotation is applied to a variety of minerals, such as coal, graphite, hematite, phosphate rock. However, there are still many gaps in the theoretical research of nanobubbles, such as the stability mechanism, dynamic equilibrium, three−phase wire pinning hypothesis. It should be noted that the classical DLVO theory also fails to explain the super-stable nanobubbles. The properties of nanobubbles and the mechanism of enhanced flotation were described from the aspects, including nanbubble formation surface contact angle, preferential selective nucleation, capillary mechanism and nanobubble stability. On this basis, the research blank of nanobubble enhanced flotation mechanism of ultrafine particles was summarized, which pointed out the direction for the theoretical research of ultrafine particles nanobubble flotation.