1. Home
2. Faculty of Engineering

MINE518 INTERFACIAL PHENOMENA IN MINERAL SYSTEMS

Course Objectives

This course is designed to give graduate students an ability to understand the processes occuring at liquid-gas, solid-gas, solid-liquid, and liquid-liquid  interfaces, which are central to systems in mineral processing/extractive metallurgy, petroleum, and environmental engineering.

Course Content

Application of surface and colloid chemistry to mineral processing systems. Surface and interfacial tensions, thermodynamics of surfaces, adsorption from solution, wetting. The electrical double layer and electrokinetic phenomena. Colloidal systems, van der Waals attraction, mechanisms and kinetics of coagulation and flocculation.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate conceptual and quantitative proficiency on interfacial phenomena involved in mineral processing and related industrial processes.

2. Describe the fundamental equations in surface chemistry: Laplace, Kelvin, Young, and Gibbs equations.

3. Describe the concept of interfacial  energy and use this to estimate system characteristics such as wetting and spreading.

4. Compare and understand adsorption at gas-solid, gas-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces.

5. Describe the characteristics and role of surfactants.

6. Explain the origin of interfacial electrical charges, know how to modify them in favor of the industrial processes involving interfaces.

7. Explain the electrical double layer models and electrokinetic phenomena.

8. Describe the interactions between colloidal particles and the conditions for stability of colloidal systems.

9. Describe mechanisms for stabilization of emulsions, know how to design emulsions for intended uses.