Surface adsorption investigation of dodecylbenzenesulfonate isopropanolamine a novel collector during flotation separation of ilmenite from titanaugite

[Display omitted] •Ilmenite floatability was significantly increased by the selective adsorption of DBIA.•DBIA adsorption difference was revealed by surface hydrophobicity and electricity.•XPS revealed DBIA chemisorbed onto ilmenite by reacting with the Fe3+ active site.•AFM vividly showed the thick adsorption layer of DBIA on ilmenite surface. The dodecylbenzenesulfonate isopropanolamine (DBIA) as a collector was first adopted in ilmenite flotation in this study, and its effect on the surface properties of ilmenite and titanaugite was investigated by contact angle and zeta potential measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) detection. The flotation results showed that ilmenite obtained a superior floatability after being treated by DBIA, and that was ascribed to the improvement of the surface hydrophobicity of ilmenite. The zeta potential analysis indicated that the adsorption of DBIA onto ilmenite was stronger than that onto titanaugite. In addition, XPS detection revealed that the DBIA chemisorbed on the surface of ilmenite through reacting with Fe3+ active site, while weakly physisorbed onto titanaugite surface. Furthermore, the adsorption difference of DBIA led to a thick hydrophobic layer onto ilmenite surface but a sparse on the surface of titanaugite, which was vividly evidenced by the scanning results of AFM.