International Journal of Mineral Processing 158 (2017) 63–67

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International Journal of Mineral Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijminpro

Characterization of frothers and their behavior using partial molar Excess

Gibbs energy
Martin C Harris, Cyril T O'Connor ⁎
Centre for Minerals Research, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Frothers, which are widely used as key reagents in the flotation of ores, are generally alcohols of varying struc-
Received 21 June 2016 tures. There is abundant experimental data which illustrates that frothers cause changes in froth behavior, bubble
Received in revised form 11 October 2016 size/coalescence and surface tension and that these changes are closely associated with changes in the molecular
Accepted 18 November 2016
structure of the frothers. Partial molar Excess Gibbs energy is a thermodynamic property which quantifies the dif-
Available online 20 November 2016
ference between the partial molar value of the Gibbs energy of a species in a real mixture and that for the same
Keywords:
species in an ideal mixture and this difference in mixture properties is due to differences in the molecular struc-
Excess Gibbs energy tures of the constituent species. It is thus reasonable to hypothesize that partial molar Excess Gibbs energy may
Frothers be a useful parameter to quantify the changes which occur when using frothers of different molecular structures.
Froth In this paper it is shown that there is a generally strong relationship between measured characteristics such as
Surface tension froth volume/height, surface tension, hemi-micelle formation and the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of alco-
Hemi-micelles hol frothers and these correlations provide robust evidence that many of the characteristics of frothers are
strongly related to their molecular structure which in turn is related to the total surface area, molecular volume,
and molar volume of the molecule, the molecular weight of the constituent functional groups and the interaction
energies between the species present.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Frothers are used in the flotation process and are often characterized
as anionic, cationic, non-ionic or zwitterionic. Typical examples of non-
ionic frothers are alcohols. These non-ionic frothers contribute signifi-
cantly to the formation of a stable population of bubbles (typically
~1–2 mm dia.) in the pulp phase as a result of the role they play in low-
ering surface tension and inhibiting bubble coalescence. Alcohols form
non-ideal mixtures with water and their behavior has often been char-
acterized using the so-called HLB (hydrophobic–lipophilic balance)
number. Comley et al. (2002) have also used properties such as dynamic
surface tension to explain the role of frothers with a view to providing a
quantifiable link between measurable frother properties and flotation
system responses so as to interpret their behavior. Both the HLB number
and dynamic surface tension approaches are dependent on the chemical
structure of the frother. Davies (1957) studied the relationship between
HLB numbers and the solubility of emulsifying agents in the oil or water
phases. He proposed that HLB values of surface active agents could be
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: martin.harris@uct.ac.za (M.C. Harris), cyril.oconnor@uct.ac.za
(C.T. O'Connor).
calculated from the chemical formulae using group numbers. One
draw back of the use of the HLB concept however is that it is not easily
amenable to the characterization of mixtures at various concentrations
and moreover the advances in determining the behavior of such mole-
cules in an aqueous environment have advanced significantly in recent
years due to major advances in thermodynamic modelling (Gmehling et
al., 2002). Recently it was shown that the use of activity coefficients (ɣi)
ex
or partial molar Excess Gibbs energy (Gi ) which is calculated for spe-
cies i in an aqueous mixture using Eq. (1) is a more rigorous way than
HLB number to describe the behavior of these frother molecules in
non-ideal mixtures with water (Corin and O'Connor, 2014).
Gi
ex
¼ RT1nγi ðT; P; x Þ ð1Þ
ex
where Gi = partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of component i in the
aqueous mixture, and ɣi is the activity coefficient of species i, and R, T
and P have their usual meanings and x represents the set of liquid
phase mole fractions.
It is proposed in the present paper that partial molar Excess Gibbs
energy is a more appropriate and rigorous way in which to link the be-
havior of frothers to their chemical structure. Structure-activity rela-
tionships of molecules such as frothers in mixtures are based on the
premise that several molecular properties control their activity such as

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.minpro.2016.11.018
0301-7516/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
64 M.C. Harris, C.T. O'Connor / International Journal of Mineral Processing 158 (2017) 63–67
total surface area, molecular volume, the molar volume, molecular
weight of the functional groups in the molecule and interaction ener-
gies. Thermodynamic analysis of such systems separates the molecular
interactions controlling aqueous solubility into the interactions be-
tween solute and water molecules and between solute and solute
molecules. In flotation systems the water phase is in great Excess
and thus the focus of attention in terms of the non-ideality of the so-
lution is the behavior of the frother. The introduction of a frother into
water is thus associated with an unfavourable free-energy change
due to the interaction between frother and water molecules. It is
well known that there are many models available to estimate the ac-
tivity coefficients of polar species such as alcohols in water. It is rec-
ommended that for the systems discussed in this paper (water-
alcohols) the most appropriate model to use is the UNIFAC (Uniquac
Functional-group Activity Coefficient) method (Dortmund Data
Bank, 2016; Fredenslund et al. 1977; Fredenslund et al. 1975;
Sandler, 2006). The basis of the UNIFAC method is the UNIQUAC
(Universal quasi-chemical) approach proposed by Abrams and
Prausnitz (1975). The UNIQUAC model contains, first, a combinatori-
al part, essentially due to differences in size and shape of the mole-
cules in the mixture, and a residual part, essentially due to energy
interactions between molecules in the mixture. Second, functional
group sizes and interaction surface areas are introduced from inde-
pendently obtained pure-component, molecular structure data. The
pure component parameters in UNIQUAC, ri and qi, are, respectively,
measures of molecular van der Waals volumes and molecular surface
areas (Fredenslund et al., 1975). Apart from influencing surface ten-
sion and bubble coalescence it has been shown that the frothers re-
tard the drainage of liquid from the bubble lamella in the froth
phase (Laskowski et al., 1998) and it is proposed that by investigat-
ing the relationship between froth behavior and the partial molar Ex-
cess Gibbs energy of the frother it may be possible to gain a further
insight into the role which the molecular structure of frothers play
in influencing factors such as the film drainage phenomenon. Finally
hemi-micelles form as a result of the attraction of the hydrophobic
tails of the polar hydrocarbons dispersed in the water and this inter-
action will most likely be influenced by the molecular structure of
the hydrocarbon and hence the relationship between partial molar
Excess Gibbs energy and hemi-micelle formation should provide fur-
ther evidence of the ability of Excess Gibbs energy to predict such
behavior.
The aim of the present paper is to investigate the relationships be-
tween the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of various frothers in flota-
tion systems and their impact on factors such as froth behavior (such as
indicated by froth height or volume), hemi-micelle formation and sur-
face tension. The experimental data used in the paper have been ex-
tracted from a variety of sources which are referenced in the
appropriate sections.
2. Experimental methods
ex
The values of Gi , the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of com-
ponent i in the system, were determined using Eq. (1) where the
values of the activity coefficients, γi, were obtained using the UNIFAC
method. The temperature was set at 298 K and the default concen-
tration of the frother was set at a mole fraction of 0.0001. It can be
shown that at such low concentrations the calculated value of the
partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of the frother in the mixture
with water did not vary significantly from values at concentrations
an order of magnitude greater or lesser. Moreover such concentra-
tions are typical of those used in practice on flotation operations.
Frothers are generally alcohols of either a simple linear structure or
branched isomers of such alcohols. In the present study, apart from
n-alcohols, other alcohols with the following molecular formulae
were used in the various data sets presented:
Methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC)
Polypropylene Glycol (PPG)
In the case of the PPGs the values of n used in the calculations are as
shown in Table 1. As is well known commercial frothers are often not to-
tally pure but the values of n shown, and hence the molecular weights
and number of various functional groups used in this paper, demon-
strate to an extent the robustness of the approach of using Excess
Gibbs energy. The goodness of fit for the various cases presented illus-
trate this well.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Relationship between foam/froth stability and partial molar Excess
Gibbs energy
The Bikerman test has been widely used as a simple and effective
method to quantify the effect of frothers on the stability of foams
(Bikerman, 1973). Gas is sparged at a constant flow rate through a de-
fined volume of fluid, generating a characteristic volume of foam.
After an initial increase, the foam column reaches a maximum height,
which is typically linearly proportional to the flow-rate of the gas. The
height of the foam generated in the Bikerman test is determined by
the lifetime of the films at the foam surface. The time taken to reach
maximum height is about 3 min. Capillary pressure draws fluid from
the films into the channels, or Plateau borders of the bubbles, thinning
the films to the point where they rupture. The surface tension of the
films provides a disjoining pressure that defines the extent to which
this process is retarded. In the absence of any retarding force, the aver-
age film lifetime is only of the order of milliseconds (Narsimhan &
Ruckenstein, 1996). Hence an adsorbed frother is a prerequisite for
the existence of a froth or foam.
A number of studies have been undertaken on the effect of different
frother types on the Bikerman foam height. For the present purposes, a
two phase air-liquid system will be referred to as “foam”, while “froth”
will designate the presence of a solid phase comprised of mineral parti-
cles typically in the 1 to 100 μm range. Fig. 1 gives an example of the re-
lationship between froth height and the partial molar Excess Gibbs
energy of the frother species in a 3-phase air-liquid-solid system. The
frothers used were straight chain C2–C8 alcohols and the procedure
used was similar to that used for a Bikerman test (Leja & Schulman,
1954). The experimental procedure is described in their paper. The
data used in this figure were obtained from Fig. 7 of that paper for the
case of alcohols alone. Homogeneous solid particles of various sulphides
including galena and sphalerite were used in these experiments. In all
the figures the solid line shown simply represents a fit to the data.
There is clearly a close linear relationship (R2 = 0.98) between the par-
tial molar Excess Gibbs energy and the froth height which indicates that
there is a strong relationship between froth height and the molecular
Table 1
Value of n for various polypropylene glycols (PPGs) studied.
PPG frother (approx. mol. wt.) n
1000 17
725 12
425 7
192 3
 M.C. Harris, C.T. O'Connor / International Journal of Mineral Processing 158 (2017) 63–67 65

80
Table 2
70 ex
Frothers/frother mixtures used in the tests illustrated in Fig. 2. Gi value is the partial mo-
Froth Height (mm)

60 lar excess Gibbs energy of the frothers in the frother-water system (data from Marozva,
2015).
50
ex
40 Frother type Gi (kJ/mol) Foam ht. (cm)

30 PPG1000 (n = 17) 108.81 72

20 PPG425 (n = 7) 34.09 21.5
PPG192 (n = 3) 13.18 14.5
10
Pentanol 12.03 11.4
0 Hexanol 14.85 15.9
0 5 10 15 20 25 MIBC 13.81 25
Excess Gibbs Energy (kJ/mol) PPG425 & MIBC (mol. ratio = 0.49:0.51) 51.76 35.7
PPG725 & MIBC (mol. ratio = 0.36:0.64) 85.91 50.6
PPG425& pentanol (mol. ratio = 0.45:0.55) 49.28 35.9
Fig. 1. Relationship between froth height and partial molar excess Gibbs energy using
PPG725 & pentanol (mol. ratio = 0.33:0.67) 83.43 46
normal alcohols of different chain lengths (in l-to-r sequence: C2–C8) (data from Leja &
Schulman, 1954) (R2 = 0.98).

properties of the frothers used. It is interesting to note that the partial
molar Excess Gibbs energy of methanol is 1672 J/mol which is less
than the x-axis intercept value of 2395 J/mol. This is consistent with ex-
perimental observations that it is not possible to form a stable froth
using methanol as a frother. The role of the solid phase is of course im-
portant in considering froth stability and it is possible that there will be
a frother-collector interaction. However such interactions, proposed
originally by Leja and Schulmann (1954), will be similar for a particular
mineral type.
Fig. 2 shows the relationship between the foam height obtained in a
Bikerman test and the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of the frothers
indicated. These are two phase experiments and no solid phase was
present. The froth height measurements were repeated 4 times and
the average value is shown. Table 2 provides details of the frothers
used in these tests (Marozva, 2015). The reproducibility of the proce-
dure is very good and in a typical experiment the maximum froth height
reached after 160 s was 48.4 cm and in a repeat experiment the result
was a maximum height of 47.3 cm after 180 s. In a manner similar to
that shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 also shows a close linear relationship
(R2 = 0.95) between the foam height and the partial molar Excess
Gibbs energy of the frother used. It is noteworthy that for apparently
quite different frother types the near equivalence of the partial molar
Excess Gibbs energy results in very similar foam heights. For example,
the PPG425:MIBC mixture (Gi
ex
= 51.76 kJ/mol) can be compared
ex
with the PPG425: pentanol mixture (Gi = 49.28 kJ/mol), where the
foam heights are 35.7 cm and 35.9 cm respectively. Similarly for the
case of PPG 192 and hexanol. Interestingly, the outlier was repeatedly
found to be MIBC which had a value of Excess Gibbs energy of
12.9 kJ/mol and a foam height of 25 cm. It is not clear at this stage if
80
70
60
Foam Ht (cm)
this was due to purity of the sample. The results for the mixtures in
Fig. 2 support the non-trivial prediction of a significant increase in
froth volume for mixtures compared to the volume generated by their
individual components as well as illustrating that the role of the frother
is related to all the factors involved in the determination of Excess Gibbs
energy and not just molecular structure. The results shown in Figs. 1 and
2 thus provide compelling evidence that it appears to be possible to
make predictions of the foaming/frothing properties of prospective
frothers by comparing their partial molar Excess Gibbs energy values
with those of known frothers.
In the case of the mixtures the value of the partial molar Excess
Gibbs energy of the frothers is estimated using the relationship G ex ¼
ex
∑Xi Gi . In a three component system the mole fractions of the two
frothers are respectively approximately 0.0001 and that of water ap-
proximately 0.9998. Hence the activity coefficient of water is ~ 1 and
its partial molar Excess Gibbs energy is ~0. If the molar Excess Gibbs en-
ergy were used in this paper then all values would need to be multiplied
by 0.0001. Hence by using the partial molar value, the value for the mix-
ture is approximated by the sum of the partial molar values for each
component.
In attempting to understand the relationships between frother mo-
lecular properties, as indicated by the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy,
and froth properties it is important to recall that at the air-water inter-
face the alkyl chain of the frother will be oriented into the air phase and
the –OH end will be oriented into the aqueous phase. These correlations
between foam/froth behavior and partial molar Excess Gibbs energy
suggest that the role of the frother in determining the foam/froth height
or volume is related to all the factors which contribute to the structure-
activity relationship already referred to earlier and which are embodied
in the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy. The partial molar Excess Gibbs
energy thus appears to provide an overall indication of the interactions
occurring between the alkyl chain of the frother and the water phase. In
the flotation process the ultimate recovery to the froth product of the
hydrophobic particles is determined by the lifetime of the bubble
films in the froth. The frothers stabilize the films against rupture by pro-
viding a disjoining pressure (electrostatic and steric in nature) that pre-

50 vents opposing faces from merging. However, the selectivity of the

40 flotation process is influenced by entrainment which is the result of
nonselective transport of hydrophilic particles in the interstitial fluid
30
in the channels (or Plateau borders) to the product. This is controlled
20 by drainage, which in turn is controlled by the balance between gravita-
10 tional/settling and capillary forces, where the latter forces are deter-
mined by the surface tension which in turn is determined by the
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 nature of the adsorbed frothers and the hydrophobic particles. Hence
Excess Gibbs Energy (kJ/mol) flotation froths require an intermediate stability that can provide a bal-
ance between these opposing performance requirements, where the
Fig. 2. Relationship between foam height and excess Gibbs energy using frothers shown in most favorable frother contribution will depend on the surface proper-
Table 2 (data from Marozva, 2015). ties of the solid phase.
66 M.C. Harris, C.T. O'Connor / International Journal of Mineral Processing 158 (2017) 63–67
80
Surface Tension (dynes/cm)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 the non-ideality of the mixture, as indicated by the Excess Gibbs energy,
0 5 10 15
Excess Gibbs energy (kJ/mol)
Fig. 3. Relationship between surface tension and partial molar excess Gibbs energy for a
series of alcohol frothers (data from Addison, 1945) (frother molar conc. = 1.00e–
02 mol/l.; T = 293 K). Alcohols in l-to-r sequence: sec-octyl, n-heptyl, n-hexyl, tert-
hexyl, n-amyl, isoamyl, n-butyl, n-propyl, ethyl.
3.2. Relationship between surface tension and Excess Gibbs energy
The importance of bubble size in the flotation process is well known
since it will affect the kinetics of flotation (Gorain et al., 1997). Surface
tension plays an important role in the formation of bubbles and frothers
contribute to their formation by the lowering of surface tension and by
reducing bubble coalescence. All of these factors depend on the proper-
ties of the frother and hence it is of interest to investigate the relation-
ship between the surface tension and the partial molar Excess Gibbs
energy values. Figs. 3 and 4 show the relationship between partial
molar Excess Gibbs energy and surface tension for various series of
frothers from two different studies. In both cases the surface tension be-
gins to decrease when the Excess Gibbs energy exceeds about 10 kJ/mol
indicating that there is a generic property of the frother molecule which
begins to have an effect. Addison (1945) used a vibrating-jet technique
and the values used are obtained from Fig. 1 of that paper at a concen-
tration of 1.00e–02 mol/l. In the case of Comley et al. (2002) the data
was obtained using the maximum bubble pressure method and the
values used are obtained from Fig. 6 of their paper. The value for octanol
was estimated by extrapolation. As can be seen the surface tension is
initially hardly influenced by the changing nature of the frothers and
has a value close to that of water (i.e. ~ 72 dyne/cm). This can be ex-
plained by observing that at the defined (low) concentration of
0.0001, virtually every molecule of the frother that can adsorb, will ad-
sorb at the air-water interface very rapidly. Hence, if there is sufficient
80
Surface Tension (dyne/cm)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 creased. In their study they proposed an expression relating the concen-
0 5 10 15 20
Thousands
Excess Gibbs Energy (kJ/mol)
Fig. 4. Relationship between surface tension and partial molar excess Gibbs energy for a
series of frothers (data from Comley et al., 2002). (frother molar conc. = 1.00e–
02 mol/l; T = 293 K). Alcohols in l-to-r sequence: (water), propanol, butanol, pentanol,
MIBC, hexanol, heptanol, octanol.
packing space on the interface to accommodate the frother molecules
the bulk concentration tends to zero. Surface tension defines the energy
required to increase the surface area of the interface and hence the
adsorbed molecules will not affect this. Rather it is the availability of
molecules in the bulk phase to adsorb as a result of the change in area
that defines the surface tension and so the change in surface tension is
defined by the change in the bulk concentration. However, there is lim-
ited space for the molecules to adsorb and hence for the small molecules
(e.g. ≤C5 alcohols) there will be very little packing constraint and thus
the surface tension remains virtually the same as water even though
20 is increasing. As the molecules get larger and their packing orientation
changes, packing constraints will start to define an increase in the
bulk concentration thus resulting in a decrease in surface tension. It is
interesting to note that in both cases the surface tension decreases in
the region of Excess Gibbs energy values greater than about 10 kJ/mol.
In other words it appears that there is a generic property which is relat-
ed to the factors already mentioned which influence the value of Excess
Gibbs energy which influence the surface tension effect of a frother. If it
is recalled that the Excess Gibbs energy represents the work done in the
molecule moving from the aqueous to the gas phase it is notable that
the increase in Excess Gibbs energy per extra CH2 group is on average
2.8 kJ/mol which correlates well with values obtained when using
Langmuir's estimate of the work done in transferring a mole of solute
from the bulk of the liquid to the air-water interface, viz. ~2.87 kJ/mol
for each additional CH2 group (Addison, 1945)
3.3. Relationship between cohesive free energy and partial molar Excess
Gibbs energy
Collectors are used in flotation to render the mineral particle hydro-
phobic. In the flotation of oxides such as quartz typical examples of such
reagents are alkyl amines. It has been proposed that the initial adsorp-
tion of these collector molecules at the mineral surface is followed by
the progressive formation of hemi-micelles resulting from the presence
of the hydrophobic alkyl groups until the completion of a pseudo-
monolayer. This may be followed by the further adsorption of molecules
in a reverse orientation. The amount and nature of, in this case, the
adsorbed alkyl amines and the distribution and size of the hemi-mi-
celles determine the hydrophobicity of the mineral particle. The hemi-
micelle forms as a result of the non-ideality of the hydrocarbon tail-
water mixture. As has been shown in this paper the behavior of these
hydrophobic moieties in an aqueous solution is related to their partial
molar Excess Gibbs energy. It is thus reasonable to hypothesize that
the micelles which form due to the attraction of the hydrocarbon tails
in the aqueous phase for each other will be dependent on their struc-
ture-water relationship and hence their partial molar Excess Gibbs en-
ergy values. The relationship between collectors such as alkyl amines
and hemi-micelle formation has been investigated by Fuerstenau et al.
(1964) and the relationship between hemi-micelle formation and
alkyl chain length has been subsequently further investigated, e.g.
Fuerstenau and Colic (1999). In the former paper the role of the alkyl
chain length of alkyl ammonium acetates in the flotation of quartz
was studied and the results interpreted in terms of hemi-micelle forma-
tion at the solid–liquid interface. They observed that the solution con-
centration of collector at which a marked change in electrochemical
potential of quartz occurs decreased as the length of the alkyl chain in-
25 tration at which hemi- micelles form, CHM, to the electrostatic free
energy which describes the process of bringing the polar groups togeth-
er (Eq. (2)):
ð2Þ
where CHM is the bulk hemi-micelle concentration, We = electrostatic
adsorption energy, ǿ is the cohesive free energy per CH2 group, Ʈi is
 M.C. Harris, C.T. O'Connor / International Journal of Mineral Processing 158 (2017) 63–67
0
0 10 20 30 40
-2
-4
-6
ln Chm
-8
-10
-12
-14
-16
Excess Gibbs energy (kJ/mol)
Fig. 5. Relationship between ln CHM (hemi-micelle bulk concentration) and partial molar
partial molar excess Gibbs energy of C4–C16 alkyl ammonium acetates (data from
Fuerstenau et al., 1964).
the adsorption density and n is the number of carbon atoms in the alkyl
chain. They have used a concentration parameter obtained from plots of
flotation recovery for different alkyl chain lengths (which is assumed to
be proportional to the bulk hemi-micelle concentration CHM) to show
that there is a linear relationship between ln(CHM) and n, the number
of carbon atoms in the alkyl chain of the ammonium acetate. The forces
responsible for the association of these alkyl groups are similar to those
occurring in the bulk except that the adsorption of the alkylammonium
ions at the quartz surface in fact aids the association. Fig. 5, which has
been plotted using the data from their paper, shows that there is a
strong linear relationship (R2 = 0.99) between ln(CHM) and partial
molar Excess Gibbs energy for each of the alkyl ammonium acetates.
The partial molar Excess Gibbs energy values have been determined
for the equivalent alkyl amines and the assumption that since that end
of the molecule at which adsorption occurs is constant for all the alkyl
ammonium acetates used, the alkyl ammonium chain is an appropriate
proxy for the behavior of the alkyl group. These results suggest that the
partial molar Excess Gibbs energy provides an indication of hemi-mi-
celle formation, viz. the longer the alkyl chain length, the greater the
partial molar Excess Gibbs energy and the lower the bulk hemi-micelle
concentration.
Fuerstenau et al. (1964) equated the slope of their plot of ln CHM vs
number of carbon atoms in the alkyl chain to [−ǿ/2.3 kT] from which
they determined ǿ, the cohesive free energy per CH2 group, to be
1.0 ± 0.1 kT (or ~0.6 kcal/mol). In this context it is interesting to note
that the increase in Excess Gibbs energy for alkyl ammonium acetate
species from carbon numbers from 4 to 16 is on average 2.993 kJ/mol
or 0.716 kcal/mol per CH2 group. Not surprisingly the increase in Excess
Gibbs energy determined using activity coefficients is indicative of the
increasing cohesive free energy per CH2 group.
67
4. Conclusion
50
The results presented in this paper have provided evidence that
many of the characteristics of frothers such as their effect on the behav-
ior of foams or froths, surface tension and hemi-micelle formation are
strongly related to the partial molar Excess Gibbs energy of the alkyl
groups associated with the frother. Partial molar Excess Gibbs energy
values are related to molecular properties such as total surface area, mo-
lecular volume, molar volume, molecular weight of the functional
groups and interaction energies. Thus the relationships illustrated in
this paper suggest that the characteristics of frothers are related to all
of these molecular properties. Such insights may have a significant im-
pact on the molecular design of frothers for customized applications
with respect to, for example, froth height or stability. It has also been
shown that Excess Gibbs energy values may also provide an indication
of the potential formation of hemi-micelles.
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