The process of froth flotation relies on using air bubbles to collect desired mineral particles dispersed in aqueous media on the surface, while leaving undesirous mineral particles behind. For a particle to be collected on the surface of a bubble, the thin liquid films (or wetting films) of water formed in between must rupture. According to the Frumkin-Derjaguin isotherm, it is necessary that wetting films can rupture when the disjoining pressures are negative. However, the negative disjoining pressures are difficult to measure due to the instability and short lifetimes of the films. In the present work, two new methods of determining negative disjoining pressures have been developed. One is to use the modified thin film pressure balance (TFPB) technique, and the other is to directly determine the interaction forces using the force apparatus for deformable surfaces (FADS) developed in the present work. The former is designed to obtain spatiotemporal profiles of unstable wetting films by recording the optical interference patterns. The kinetic information derived from the spatiotemporal profiles were then used to determine the disjoining pressures using an analytical expression derived in the present work on the basis of the Reynolds lubrication theory. The technique has been used to study the effects of surface hydrophobicity, electrolyte (Al3+ ions) concentration, and bubble size on the stability of wetting films. Further, the geometric mean combining rule has been tested to see if the disjoining pressures of the wetting films can be predicted from the disjoining pressures of the colloid films formed between two hydrophobic surfaces and the disjoining pressures of the foam films formed between two air bubbles. The FADS is capable of directly measuring the interaction forces between air bubble and solid surface, and simultaneously monitoring the bubble deformation. The results were analyzed using the Reynolds lubrication theory and the extended DLVO theory to determine both the hydrodynamic and disjoining pressures. The FADS was used to study the effects of surface hydrophobicity and approach speeds. The results show that hydrophobic force is the major driving force for the bubble-particle interactions occurring in flotation. / Ph. D.

Thin liquid films (TLFs) of water are ubiquitous in daily lives as well as in many industrial processes. They can be formed between two identical phases, as in colloid films between two macroscopic surfaces and foam films between two air bubbles; and between two dissimilar phases, as in wetting films. Stability of the colloids, foams, and wetting films is determined by the surface forces in the TLFs. Depending on the nature of the surfaces involved, the stabilities can be predicted using combinations of three different forces, i.e., the van der Waals, electrical double layer (EDL), and hydrophobic forces. The objective of the present work is to study the roles of these forces in determining the stabilities of the TLFs of water confined between i) an air bubble and a hydrophobic surface and ii) an oil drop and a hydrophobic surface, with particular interest in studying the role of the hydrophobic force. The first part of the study involves the measurement of the surface forces in the TLFs confined between bitumen drops and mineral surfaces. Deformation of bitumen drops has been monitored by interferometry while it approaches a flat surface. By analyzing the spatiotemporal film profiles, both the capillary and hydrodynamic forces have been calculated using the Young-Laplace equation and the Reynolds lubrication approximation, respectively, with the surface forces being determined by subtracting the latter from the former. The results are useful for better understanding the effects of electrolyte and pH on bitumen liberation and recovery by flotation and for developing a filtration model from first principles. The second part of the study involves the surface force measurement in wetting (flotation) films. Surface forces in the TLFs of water on silica surfaces have been measured using the force apparatus for deformable surfaces (FADS) using an air bubble as a force sensor. The measurements have been conducted in the presence of various cationic surfactants such as dodecylamine hydrochloride (DAH), and alkyltrimethylammonium chloride (CnTACl), electrolytes, and polymers. The results show that film stability and hence the kinetics of film thinning can be greatly improved by the control of bubble ζ-potentials, whose role in flotation has long been neglected in flotation studies. Force measurements have also been conducted in the TLFs of water confined between oil drops and hydrophobic surfaces. Stability of this type of film plays an important role in a process of using oil drops rather than air bubbles to collect hydrophobic particles from aqueous phase. The force measurements conducted in the present work show that hydrophobic forces are much stronger in water films formed between oil drops and hydrophobic surfaces than in water films formed between air bubbles and hydrophobic surfaces, which can be attributed to the differences in the Hamaker constants involved. / Doctor of Philosophy / When two macroscopic surfaces in water are brought to a close proximity, a thin liquid film (TLF) is formed in between, with its stability being determined by the surface forces present in the film. TLFs are ubiquitous in daily lives and play a decisive role in many industrial processes such as mineral flotation, food processing, oil extraction, heat transfer, etc. In the present work, the surface forces present in wetting films have been measured by approaching an air bubble (or an oil drop) slowly toward a flat surface while monitoring the curvature changes during film thinning by interferometry and calculating the capillary forces using the Young-Laplace equations. By analyzing the results in view of the Frumkin-Derjaguin isotherm and the extended DLVO theory, it was possible to determine the changes in the van der Waals, electrical double-layer (EDL), and hydrophobic forces during film thinning. The results show that both the EDL and the long-range component of the hydrophobic force control the kinetics of film thinning and rupture while the contact angle formation is controlled by the van der Waals force and the short-range hydrophobic force. It has been found also that n-alkane drops form substantially larger contact angles than air bubbles on a hydrophobic surface due to the fact that the van der Waals force is attractive in the drop-surface interactions while the same is repulsive in the bubble-surface interactions. These observations have a profound implication in flotation, that is, oil drops can recover hydrophobic particles from an aqueous phase better than air bubbles.