Structure-Activity (Flotation) Relationship Modeling of Flotation of Sphalerite by N-Arylhydroxamic Acids

Abstract

Molecular structure is known to play a vital role in the efficiency of chleating collectors in mineral flotation. Hence, flotation efficiencies of congeneric organic compounds used as mineral collectors are amenable to QSAR modeling. Sphalerite grade of the floats of a set of flotation tests conducted with a copper-zinc ore using a series of twenty seven Narylhydroxamic acids of the generic structure Ar-N(OH)C(=0)-R (R= arylialkyliaaralkyl) were modeled using calculated molecular descriptors such as, topochemical, topostructural, quantum chemical, and geometrical parameters. In addition to these molecular descriptors, calculated physicochemical properties such as octanol-water partition coefficient (ClogP), and orga-nic carbon-water partition coefficient (logKoe) were also used to build the regression models. The collectors were classified into C-aryl, C-alkyl, and C-aralkyl. Octanol-water partition coefficient (ClogP) was found to give the best quadratic fit for C-aryl, and the combined set of C-aralkyl and C-alkyl. It was interesting to note that the data for individual sets namely, C-alkyl, and C-aralkyl gave linear fits with positive and negative slopes, resp-ectively. This indicated that the points were distributed on the right hand and left hand sides of the parabola that fits the combined data set.