Structural and electronic properties of Si termination, O-middle termination, and O-rich terminations of a quartz (001) surface as well as water molecule adsorption on it were simulated by means of density functional theory (DFT). Calculated results show that the O-middle termination exposing a single oxygen atom on the surface is the most stable model of quartz (001) surface, with the lowest surface energy at 1.969 J·m⁻², followed by the O-rich termination and Si termination at 2.892 J·m⁻² and 2.896 J·m⁻², respectively. The surface properties of different terminations mainly depend on the surface-exposed silicon and oxygen atoms, as almost all the contributions to the Fermi level (E_F) in density of states (DOS) are offered by the surface-exposed atoms, especially the O2p state. In the molecular adsorption model, H₂O prefers to adsorb on the surface Si and O atoms, mainly via O₁–H₁ bond at 1.259 Å and Si₁–O_w at 1.970 Å by Van der Waals force and weak hydrogen bond with an adsorption energy of −57.89 kJ·mol⁻¹. In the dissociative adsorption model, the O-middle termination is hydroxylated after adsorption, generating two new Si–OH silanol groups on the surface and forming the O_wH₂···O₄ hydrogen bond at a length of 2.690 Å, along with a large adsorption energy of −99.37 kJ·mol⁻¹. These variations in the presence of H₂O may have a great influence on the subsequent interfacial reactions on the quartz surface.

Silicon carbide as the core material for third-generation semiconductors plays an important role in many fields; however, its large-scale applications as well as low-cost synthesis remain a challenge. Silicon carbide was prepared via carbothermal reduction using silicon dioxide and purified waste cathodes as the carbon source. The optimum conditions for preparing silicon carbide using waste cathodes are temperature = 1550 °C, molar ratio of carbon to silicon = 3:1 and holding time = 3 h. The microstructure of the prepared silicon carbide was investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD results of the prepared silicon carbide showed that β-SiC was the main phase of the prepared silicon carbide. The SEM results showed that the prepared silicon carbide was fibrous. The growth mechanism of silicon carbide was proposed using the thermodynamic calculations of chemical reactions.

Herein, activated red mud particles are used as adsorbents for phosphorus adsorption. HCl solutions with different concentrations and deionized water are employed for desorption tests, and the desorption mechanism under the following optimal conditions is investigated: HCl concentration = 0.2 mol/L, desorbent dosage = 0.15 L/g, desorption temperature = 35 °C, and desorption time = 12 h. Under these conditions, the phosphate desorption rate and amount reach 99.11% and 11.29 mg/g, respectively. Notably, the Langmuir isothermal and pseudo-second-order kinetic linear models exhibit consistent results: monomolecular-layer surface desorption is dominant, and chemical desorption limits the rate of surface desorption. Thermodynamic analysis indicates that phosphorus desorption by the desorbents is spontaneous and that high temperatures promote such desorption. Moreover, an intraparticle diffusion model demonstrates that the removal of phosphorus in the form of precipitation from the surface of an activated hematite particle adsorbent primarily occurs via a chemical reaction, and surface micromorphological analysis indicates that desorption is primarily accompanied by Ca dissolution, followed by Al and Fe dissolutions. The desorbents react with the active elements in red mud, and the vibrations of the [SiO₄]⁴⁻ functional groups of calcium–iron garnet and calcite or aragonite disappear. Further, in Fourier-transform infrared spectra, the intensities of the peaks corresponding to the PO₄³⁻ group considerably decrease. Thus, desorption primarily involves monomolecular-layer chemical desorption.

In this study, modified red mud after phosphorus adsorption was used as the adsorbent, and HCl and deionized water were used as desorbents to desorb phosphorus. The components in the adsorbent were optimized based on density functional theory, and adsorbent and desorbent models were established. Molecular dynamics simulation was performed to determine the phosphorus concentration before and after desorption, interaction energies, radial distribution function(RDF), mean-square displacement(MSD), and diffusion coefficient. The Monte Carlo method was used to simulate the desorption isotherm, desorption site, heat of desorption, and desorption energy. Simulation results showed that deionized water could only desorb phosphorus on the adsorbent surface, and the stability of the system deteriorated upon adding HCl. HCl destroyed the ionic and hydrogen bonding between the O atoms in H₂PO₄ ⁻ and reactive metal and oxygen atoms in the activated red mud particles. Moreover, the van der Waals force decreased considerably. The ionic and hydrogen bonds between H₂PO₄ ⁻ and the surface of activated red mud particles were broken by HCl, which accelerated the desorption of phosphorus from the adsorbent surface. The interaction between HCl and phosphorus accelerated the diffusion, which decreased the adsorption capacity. Moreover, the desorption capacity increased with increasing temperature.

In this study, the hydrophobic modification of coal gasification fly ash (FA) was investigated given the adverse effects of surface hydrophilic structures on the material field. The surface of FA was modified using stearic acid (SA), which successfully altered its hydrophilic structure. When the contact angle of S-FA increased from 23.4° to 127.2°, the activation index increased from 0 to 0.98, the oil absorption decreased from 0.564 g/g to 0.510 g/g, and the BET-specific surface area decreased from 13.973 m²/g to 3.218 m²/g. The failure temperature of SA on the surface of S-FA was 210 °C. The adsorption mechanism of FA was analyzed using density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD). The adsorption of water molecules by FA involved both chemical and physical adsorption, with active adsorption sites for Al, Fe, and Si. The adsorbed water molecules on the surface of FA formed hydrogen bonds with a bond length of 1.5–2.5 Å, leading to agglomeration. In addition, the long alkyl chain in SA mainly relied on the central carbon atom in the (-CH₃) structure to obtain electrons in different directions from the H atoms in space, increasing the Coulomb repulsion with the O atoms in the water molecule and thereby achieving the hydrophobic effect. In the temperature range of 298 K to 358 K, the combination of FA and SA became stronger as the temperature increased.

In machine vision–based image processing, machine vision products are used to convert the image of an object into image signals and then into digital signals for subsequent processing on a computer. Image processing is widely applicable in research fields such as biomedicine, remote sensing, industrial production, military production, and aerospace. This paper provides a detailed overview of the research status of image processing in the mining field and makes a comparative evaluation of some technologies and research directions. First, the application of image processing in the mining field is discussed in detail in the paper. Second, a literature review is conducted, using keywords and citation counts to determine the overall distribution of the published literature on this subject in terms of journals, countries, institutes, and authors. Finally, we analyze this topic in detail, put forward our ideas and what we learned from our analysis, and provide a summary. The analysis shows that image-processing technology is a hot research topic for future development. In addition, this paper proposes future research challenges and directions. The latest progress, development characteristics, and research prospects discussed in this paper will provide a useful reference for scholars who deeply study image processing in the field of mining.