Over-stabilized foam has always been a problem that plagues the dodecylamine (DDA) flotation system. In this study, a new device, “automatic foam analyzer”, was successfully used to characterize the behavior of foam in DDA solution. The effects of pH and DDA dosage on the foam properties were investigated from four aspects: bubble diffusion capacity, Bikerman coefficient, half-life period and solution conductivity, and the mechanism of pH and DDA concentration on foam properties was analyzed by solution chemistry and surface tension of DDA, then the change process of foam structure was deduced. The results showed that the foaming property and stability of DDA bubbles were the best at pH=8. Simultaneously, with the increase of DDA dosage, the foaming property of bubbles was enhanced, the half-life was prolonged, and the foam stability was also improved.


Weimin Xie, Dongsheng He, Shuang Liu, Fei Chen, Hongqiang Li