Surface Characterization of Oleic Acid Coated Marble Dust

Abstract

Calcite, being the most abundant mineral on earth crust, have wide application areas especially in polymer industry as a micronized functional filler material. It is hydrophilic in natural form, and made hydrophobic after surface modification to meet the requirements of polymer industry: the incompatibility between high energetic hydrophilic surface of calcite and the low-energy surface of hydrophobic polymers is a major problem. Treatment of micronized calcite with fatty acids is one of the most common method to obtain modified mineral surface. In present study, oleic acid (OA), fatty acid type surface modifying agent was used for the surface characterization of OA coated marble dust. Fine tailings of slab cutting unit of a marble processing plant was supplied. The sample was subjected to wet classification process to obtain micronized calcite fraction for experimental works. Surface modification of finely sized fraction was performed in a laboratory type flotation unit. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were used as characterization techniques.