Study of the Influence of Xanthate Derivative Structures on Copper Sulfide Mineral Adsorption Under Acidic Conditions

Adsorption of commercial xanthate derivatives on copper sulfide mineral (covellite, CuS) was studied by kinetics and isotherm adsorption experiments. The adsorption of xanthate derivatives was confirmed by FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) results. Experiments were performed with two different xanthate derivatives, C-4410 (O-pentyl S-2-propenyl ester) and C-4940 (isobutyl xanthogen ethyl formate), on individual doses of 0.05 g of powdered covellite. It was found that the equilibrium times at pH 2, 4, and 6 were different for both xanthate derivatives. The shortest times were achieved at pH 2 and 4. The results suggest that C-4110 can be used as collector in a wide range of pH, while C-4940 is limited to lower pH values. Pseudo first- and pseudo second-order kinetics models were thus applied to the experimental data for pH 2. The information obtained from the kinetics models combined with XPS allowed proposing the adsorption mechanism for the covellite-xanthate derivative pair. The adsorption takes place through a non-covalent interaction for C-4410 and chemisorption process for C-4940. The best-fitting isotherm models for C-4410 and C-4940 adsorption were Redlich–Peterson and Freundlich, respectively, which yield a maximum adsorption capacity of 57.07 mg g−1 for C-4410 and 44.62 mg g−1 for C-4940.