Patent ID: 8318025

Claim:
A process for separating at least one first material from a mixture comprising this at least one first material and at least one second material, which comprises the following steps: (A) contacting of the mixture comprising at least one first material and at least one second material with at least one surface-active substance, if appropriate in the presence of at least one dispersant, resulting in the surface-active substance becoming attached to the at least one first material, (B) if appropriate, addition of at least one dispersant to the mixture obtained in step (A) to give a dispersion having a suitable concentration, (C) treatment of the dispersion from step (A) or (B) with at least one hydrophobic magnetic particle so that the at least one first material to which the at least one surface-active substance is bound and the at least one magnetic particle become attached to one another, (D) separation of the addition product from step (C) from the mixture by application of a magnetic field, (E) cleavage of the addition product which has been separated off in step (D) to obtain the at least one first material and the at least one magnetic particle separately, wherein the surface active agent is a substance of the general formula (I) A-Z (I) where A is selected among linear or branched C 3 -C 30 -alkyl, C 3 -C 30 -heteroalkyl, optionally substituted C 6 -C 30 -heteroalkyl, C 6 -C 30 -aralkyl, and Z is a group by means of which the compound of the general formula (I) binds to the at least one hydrophobic material.