Adhesion forces for water/oil droplet and bubble on coking coal surfaces with different roughness

Surface roughness plays a significant role in floatability of coal.In the present paper,coking coal surface was polished by three different sandpapers and the surface properties were characterized by contact angle and roughness measurements.The effect of surface roughness on floatability was investigated by adhesion force measurement system for measuring interaction forces between droplets/bubbles and coking coal surfaces with different roughness.The results showed that the contact angle decreased with increasing roughness yet the adhesion force between the water droplet and coal surface increased owing to the increased contact line and the appearance of line pinning.Maximum adhesion forces between water and surfaces were 111.70,125.48,and 136.42μN when the roughness was 0.23,0.98,and 2.79 μm,respectively.In contrast,under a liquid environment,the adhesion forces between air bubble/oil droplet and coal surfaces were decreased with increasing roughness because of the restriction by water.Maximum adhesion forces of increasing roughness were 97.14,42.76,and 17.86 μN measured at interfaces between air bubble and coal surfaces and 169.48,145.84,and 121.02 lN between oil droplet and surfaces,respectively.Decreasing roughness could be beneficial to the spreading of oil droplets and the adhesion of bubbles which is conducive to flotation separation.

Effect of roughness on wettability and floatability:Based on wetting film drainage between bubbles and solid surfaces

Wetting film thinning measurement was introduced to clarify the wettability and floatability of solid surfaces with varying roughness. The wettability was quantified using the contact angle measurement combined with the dynamic force microbalance test between solid surfaces and water droplets, while the floatability was investigated by the bubble-solid surface dynamic attachment observation and the induction time measurement. The results show that the water contact angles reduce(14.53°, 12.74°, and 6.71°)with the increase of glass surface roughness, while the water droplet-glass adhesion forces intensify(11.1, 19.1 and 19.2 μN) owing to the stable wetting film. The distortion of the contact surface and the Wenzel state are the causes. In contrast, the hydrophobized surfaces have the growing apparent contact angles(38.08°, 69.81°, and 81.01°), declining adhesion strength and shortening induction time(863, 352and 12 ms) along with the increasing surface roughness. The weak wettability and fine floatability on the rough hydrophobized surface is reflected in the fast wetting film drainage dynamics and three-phase contact formation, which may be attributed to the wetting film with short diameter on tiny rough nubs and the entrapped air in the grooves as a bridge between the bulk bubble and the solid surface.