In this study, we investigated microbial flotation as a green separation technology in mineral processing. We explored their potential use as environmentally friendly depressants for chlorite by extracting and purifying exopolysaccharides (EPS) from () and comparing them with commercial alginate. Results showed that EPS derived from under different fermentation substrates, particularly carbon sources, exhibited diverse structures, compositions and surface morphologies. Importantly, only some of these EPS’ variants demonstrated effective inhibition of chlorite. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis revealed that the EPS with effective chlorite inhibition displayed a rough and porous surface morphology, resembling spherical-like structural units. We further investigated the different compositions of EPS using colorimetric methods, identifying total carbohydrates, uronic acids, acetyl and pyruvyl groups and proteins. In addition, we observed that functional groups, including acetyl group (CHCO) and pyruvic acid (COCOOH), were detected in certain EPS variants, and these functional groups may be associated with the observed inhibition effect on chlorite. These findings highlight the potential of EPS derived from as an environmentally friendly depressant for chlorite.

中文翻译：

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维氏固氮菌胞外多糖（EPS）的合成及其表征及其在生物浮选中的应用

在这项研究中，我们研究了微生物浮选作为选矿中的绿色分离技术。我们通过从 () 中提取和纯化胞外多糖 (EPS) 并将其与商业藻酸盐进行比较，探索了它们作为亚氯酸盐环保抑制剂的潜在用途。结果表明，不同发酵底物，特别是碳源下产生的EPS表现出不同的结构、组成和表面形貌。重要的是，只有部分 EPS 变体表现出对亚氯酸盐的有效抑制作用。扫描电子显微镜（SEM）分析表明，有效抑制亚氯酸盐的EPS表现出粗糙且多孔的表面形态，类似于球形结构单元。我们使用比色法进一步研究了 EPS 的不同成分，鉴定了总碳水化合物、糖醛酸、乙酰基和丙酮酰基以及蛋白质。此外，我们观察到在某些 EPS 变体中检测到了包括乙酰基 (CHCO) 和丙酮酸 (COCOOH) 在内的官能团，这些官能团可能与观察到的对亚氯酸盐的抑制作用有关。这些发现凸显了 EPS 作为环保型亚氯酸盐抑制剂的潜力。