Abstract:Nanobubbles at the interface can play a key role in the auxiliary separation of fine and even ultra- fine minerals in the flotation pulp. As one of the most important reagents in flotation，the effects of different types and dosages of collectors on the nucleation of interfacial nanobubbles and particle-bubble interaction have not been systematically studied. This study was carried out in the following ways：First，the effect of alkane collectors with different chain lengths on the interaction between HOPG （highly oriented pyrolytic graphite） and macroscopic bubbles was systematically quantified，and their flotation effects were compared. The other is to analyze the size of aggregates under the condition of presence/absence of nanobubbles，combined with the force curves measured under different conditions，to investigate the flotation kinetics of electrode materials with different collectors and different dosages in the presence/absence of nanobubbles. The results show that：1）The size of graphite aggregates increases significantly in the presence of nanobubbles；the adhesion force measurement shows that the nanobubbles attached to the surface can enhance the long-range attraction between particles and bubbles，accelerate the thinning and rupture of liquid films，and greatly improve the adhesion efficiency between particles and bubbles，thereby improving the recovery rate of graphite combustibles. 2）With the increase of collector concentration，the recovery of graphite flotation combustible is also improved. To sum up，the collector and nanobubbles can produce a synergistic effect to effectively improve the flotation separation effect of electrode materials （graphite，lithium cobalt oxide）.