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Properties of foams under dynamic conditions pro- The first useful attempt at defining a "foaminess
vide a subject of a broad interest due to the practical unit" was published by Bikerman (2). The unit E he
importance of foams, e.g., in ore flotation, fire fight- defined as a ratio of the foam volume to the gas flow
ing, etc. Despite this and the large number of papers rate which was independent on the latter as well as
on foam properties published every year no parameter the shape and size of the measuring tube and the
describing foaminess (1) of a frother has been pro- average pore size of the sintered glass plate used for
posed and accepted so far. We think here of a material gas dispersing. Bikerman's unit was equal to an aver-
constant, like density or refractive index, which would age bubble life time in the foam if coalescence of the
characterize the substance in question, and could be bubbles and volume of the liquid in the foam were
listed in appropriate tables. It would make compari- neglected. The first of the above assumptions seems to
son between different agents possible. This note con- be reasonable while the second one is usually not ful-
tains a proposal of such a constant. filled, especially in the case of so-called wet or kugel
"T
x rt = AVg
Aug
160
120
80
iS
40
I I !
O0 20 40 60
FIG. 1. Dependence of gas volume in the system (solution + foam) on the gas flow rate for aqueous
n-amyl alcohol solutions of various concentrations: ×, 5 × 10-4; ©, 10-a; &, 3 x 10-3; [2, 5 x 10-s;
O, 10-2; ~ , 3 × 10-2; and A, 6 x 10-3 mole/dm3.
570
0021-9797/82/040570-08502.00/0
Copyright © 1982 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 86, No, 2, April 1982
NOTES 5 71
foams formed on solutions of substances of relatively Indeed, the total gas volume in the system is equal to
low surface activity. For such systems, the liquid the product of the average values of a gas bubble vol-
content in the foam can be as high as 40 vol% or ume (VD), number of bubbles generated in a time unit
more (3). (rib), and a lifetfme of a single bubble in the system (rt).
Gaudin (4) recommended a frothability index (FI) Since the gas flow rate Ug = n b ' Vb, rt can be defined
first introduced by Sun (5) as especially useful for com- by Eq. [1].
paring foaminess of different flotation frothers. How- The rt values as functions of concentrations are
ever, the FI values were not connected with any presented in Fig. 2 for aqueous n-butyl, n-amyl, and
physicochemical properties of the system investigated n-hexyl alcohol solutions (please note the different
and therefore could lead to false conclusions. concentration scales used). It is seen that despite dif-
In our previous papers (6, 7), a parameter called ferences in exact values, the character of this depend-
retention time (rt) was introduced to describe foami- ence is similar for all alcohols. It is also the same for
ness of flotation frothers. other flotation frothers we studied, e.g., diacetone
The term rt was defined as a slope of the linear part alcohol, c~-terpineol, mesityl oxide, and several
of the dependence of the total gas volume in the sys- aliphatic alcohols.
tem, i.e., in the solution and in the foam, on the gas The term rt, although useful, has one major dis-
flow rate. An example of such dependence is presented advantage: it depends on the frother concentration,
in Fig. 1 for aqueous n-amyl alcohol solutions of vari- and thus cannot be used as a constant characterizing
ous concentrations. The 500-ml aliquots of the solu- the substance studied. Therefore, we propose to use as
tions were studied in all measurements. The linear such a parameter, the dynamic frothability index (DFI)
part of the plot can easily be distinguished on each defined as the limiting slope of the rt vs concentra-
of the curves at higher gas flow rates. Thus (cf. Fig. 1): tion curve for c --~ 0, i.e.
The values of such a defined rt parameter, similarly to To avoid errors with the graphical determination of
Bikerman's foaminess unit, were independent of the DFI, experimental values of rt for various concentra-
gas flow rate and geometry of the measuring column. tions were fitted to the expression
rt was free from the unrealistic Bikerman assumption
on negligible liquid content in the foam. Physically, rt - 2.4 = rt®[l - exp(-kc)], [3]
rt is an average lifetime of the bubble in the whole
system, i.e., in both solution and foam. where rt® is the limiting rt value for c --~ ~, c is con-
"Z
0 0
,Z"I
.-0
4O
0 0
32
24
;4 Y X
16
00 lb •
'
3 Xc~o..~o2~
[mole/dm];cAmoH,~oZ"
CHex OHxSxl0~
FIG. 2. Dependence ofrt on frother concentration. Solid lines represent values calculated according to
Eq. [3]. Different concentration scales were used for different alcohols.
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 86. No. 2, April 1982
572 NOTES