XPS studies of chalcopyrite and sphalerite Surface modification by high: power electromagnetic

pulses (HPEMP)

ABSTRACT

XPS investigations of the influence of HPEMP- treatment duration on the Surface composition for
natural chalcopyrite and sphalerite are described. HPEMP is a video pulse with a nanosecond front
lasting between 5 and 10 ns. The electrical field component can reach 30 kV, whereas pulses
repetition frequency is 100 Hz.

In general, the formation of metal-deficient surfaces, polysulphides or elemental Sulphur and

oxides/hydroxides, were determined during the treatment for both sulphides as well as the
essential differences of the way of mineral Surface transformation during the treatment at 10^3
pulses while appearance of unstable sulphides species was detected at the chalcopyrite Surface
within 5 seconds (0.5*10^3 pulses under the same treatment conditions.

The results indicate that the quantity of adsorbed water (at. %) is changed considerably during the
HPEM- treatment depending on treatment duration for both minerals. The concentration of water
into the chalcopyrite Surface decreased during 30 seconds (3*10^3 pulses) of the HPEMP –
treatment and it rose after the treatment at 50*10^3 pulses. The inverse dependency was
obtained for sphalerite surface. Single mineral flotation tests have shown the significant increasing
of the mineral’s recovery.

Introduction

The surface of sulphides minerals plays important role on its proprieties. The various concentrated
streams of energy (like electron and ion beams, laser and microwave irradiation, plasma jets and
arches, high-power electromagnetic pulses etc.) are considered as a powerful tool for modifying
mineral surfaces and their properties. The purpose of this work was to investigate the influence of
high – power nanosecond electromagnetic pulses (HPEMP) on the surface state (XPS) and the
floatability of the chalcopyrite and sphalerite.

Methodology

Mineral samples characteristics

In this study, two natural mineral samples of high purity were used: chalcopyrite (CuFe2) and
sphalerite (ZnS) coming from the Dalnegorskoe ore field (Primorye, Russia). The mineral samples
also contain small amounts of other components. The XRF analysis was used for to determine the
chemical composition of the samples (Table 1).

Samples preparation

Minerals were dry – ground in a porcelain mortar and size fraction – 100+ 63 um was selected by
sieving. Samples were then wetted with distilled water (MeS/H2O=10/1) before being treated with
HPEMP and dried in a vacuum atmosphere, to minimize natural oxidation of minerals after the
treatment.

The treatment of the samples by nanosecond electromagnetic pulses (HPEMP) was carried out in
open air in a laboratory unit by using a series of pulses wit a nanosecond front lasting between 5
and 10 ns. The electrical field component was kV and the pulse repetition frequency were 100 Hz.
Pulse energy was approximately equal to 0.1 J and the number of pulses for the whole treatment
carried from 0.5*10^3 to 10*10^3. the pulse parameters were kept constant and the number of
pulses was controlled by changing of the treatment duration.

XPS measurement

The X-Ray photoelectron spectra were obtained with an axis UltraDld (Kratos) spectrometer by
irraditating the samples at the operating pressure of 10-8 Torr with monochromatized AlK
radiation (1486.6 eV) operated at 150 W. The pass energy XPS was equal to 160 eV for the survey
spectra registration and it was equal to 20 eV for the registration of the multi-region spectra. The
spectrometer energy scale was calibrated using Au 4 f5/2, Cu 2 p 3/2, Ag 5/2 photoelectron lines
at 83.96, 932.62 and 368.21 eV, respectively using metal films preliminary ferined by ion gun.
Survey and multi-region spectra were recorded of the Cu 2 p, ZZn 2 p, S 2 p, C1 s and O 1s
photoelectron peaks. The survey spectra were recorded with a step sixe of 1,0 eV and the spectra
of the individual lines were obtained with a step size of 0.05 eV. A Casa XPS software package was
used for data acquisition and analysis. The atomic concentrations were calculet from the
photoelectron peak areas using the Shirley background subtraction, and sensitivity facotes were
provided by the spectrometer manufactuter (Kratos).