EVALUATION OF MUTUAL INTERACTIONS IN BINARY MINERAL SUSPENSIONS BY MEANS OF ELECTROPHORETIC LIGHT-SCATTERING (ELS)

The effect of mutual interaction (heteroaggregation and dissolution in terference) between different fine mineral particles in their multi-co mponent suspensions complicate the possibility of selective separation . Presenting results obtained on three two-component mixtures (silica- silica/aminopropyl, hematite-quartz, and magnesite-quartz) it has been shown that this effect can be evaluated with the ELS technique by com paring zeta potential distributions determined prior to and after mixi ng the individual components. A theoretical interpretation of evaluate d heteroaggregation was introduced.