The ability of static secondary ion mass spectrometry to discriminate submonolayer from multilayer adsorption of thiol collectors

Abstract

Experiments have been carried out to establish whether static time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) alone is able to differentiate monolayer and multilayer coverage of thiol collectors on sulfide minerals. The systems investigated were those for which X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is able to provide an independent determination of the extent of coverage, and included diethyldithiophosphate (DTP) and 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) on chalcocite, DTP on Ag2+∂S, and iso-butyl xanthate (BX) and MBT on galena. For adsorption of a thiol collector (TC) on copper and silver sulfides, TC and metal(TC)H ions were detected for both monolayer and multilayer coverage. For multilayer..