Graphite flotation in the presence of sodium acetate

Graphite was subjected to flotation in the presence of increasing concentration of sodium acetate. A comparison of graphite flotation with the surface tension, both as a function of the sodium acetate concentration in the aqueous solution, revealed a similar pattern of both relations. It seems to confirm one of the theories of salt flotation claiming that for hydrophobic materials the change of flotation recovery with the salt concentration is mostly determined by the surface tension of the aqueous solution. It was found that graphite recovery increases when the surface tension of the solution and decreases as the surface tension decreases. At a low salt concentration this rule is not obeyed due to, very likely, the socalled Jones-Rey effect.