Abstract:
Bulk nanobubbles are submicron gas domains dispersed in solution, and they should survive for hours or even days. In the past 20 years, the application of bulk nanobubbles has been more and more widely, especially a large number of reports on the application of bulk nanobubbles in flotation have emerged. Nanobubble technology is an emerging solution for addressing climate change, environmental challenges, cost and energy reduction in industrial processes, optimization of therapeutic and diagnostic technologies, and other applications. Although the production and development of bulk nanobubbles is a newly developed field, there have been many reports and studies on their properties, and they are expected to be realized in various fields. At present, the enhancement effect of bulk nanobubble flotation has been widely verified by the flotation performance of various fine particle minerals, which provides an efficient and low-energy separation technology for fine particle mineral flotation. In this paper, the common preparation methods of bulk nanobubbles are summarized, including hydraulic cavitation, electrolysis, porous method, etc. Based on the special properties of bulk nanobubbles, the mechanism of strengthening the flotation of fine particles by bulk nanobubbles was summarized, especially the interaction mechanism between bulk nanobubbles and mineral particles and the effect on the surface properties of mineral particles. On this basis, it is pointed out that the research blank of bulk nanobubbles in fine particle mineral flotation is provided, which provides a new idea for the follow-up research.