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A Novel Property of DNA - As a Bioflotation Reagent in Mineral Processing

Vasanthakumar, Balasubramanian and Ravishankar, Honnavar and Subramanian, Sankaran (2012) A Novel Property of DNA - As a Bioflotation Reagent in Mineral Processing. In: PLOS ONE, 7 (7).

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039316

Abstract

Environmental concerns regarding the use of certain chemicals in the froth flotation of minerals have led investigators to explore biological entities as potential substitutes for the reagents in vogue. Despite the fact that several microorganisms have been used for the separation of a variety of mineral systems, a detailed characterization of the biochemical molecules involved therein has not been reported so far. In this investigation, the selective flotation of sphalerite from a sphalerite-galena mineral mixture has been achieved using the cellular components of Bacillus species. The key constituent primarily responsible for the flotation of sphalerite has been identified as DNA, which functions as a bio-collector. Furthermore, using reconstitution studies, the obligatory need for the presence of non-DNA components as bio-depressants for galena has been demonstrated. A probable model involving these entities in the selective flotation of sphalerite from the mineral mixture has been discussed.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: PLOS ONE
Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Additional Information: Copyright for this article belongs to the Authors of the article
Department/Centre: Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy)
Date Deposited: 02 Aug 2012 05:35
Last Modified: 02 Aug 2012 05:35
URI: http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/44884

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