Abstract
The object of this study was to determine the surface energy of hydrophobically modified micro-crystalline cellulose (MCC) with AKD and evaluate the effect of surface energy of the solid particles dispersed in aqueous medium on flotation efficiency. Especially to eliminate the complication derives from the diverse parameters of solid particles including particle size, type, etc. MCC's modified with AKD have been used. The surface energy Parameters were calculated from advancing contact angles of apolar and polar liquids on MCC pellets using the Lifshitz-van der Waals acid-base (LW:AB) approach. Total surface energy of hydrophobic MCC ranged from 46.19 mN/m to 48.60 mN/m. The contribution of the acid-base components to the total surface energy ranged form 13% to 17% for hydrophobic MCC's. The effect of surface characteristics on the flotation efficiency was evaluated. It was shown that there exist critical values of surface energies to increase flotation efficiency. Total surface energy and polar component of solid particles should be lower than 47 mN/m and 7 mN/m, respectively, for effective removal in the flotation process.