Aluminum is an impure element in acidic solutions obtained from gallium sources. Therefore, the selective separation of gallium from aluminum, using cupferron as a ligand (chelating agent) and sodium dodecyl sulfate as an anionic collector was investigated by flotation. The effect of the solution pH, the molar ratio of cupferron to gallium, the collector concentration, the impeller speed, the conditioning time and the flotation time on the selective separation of Ga(III) from Al(III) were studied. The results indicate that the chelating agent cupferron, efficiently separated gallium from aluminum, owing to the higher chelating strength of the interaction between Ga(III) and cupferron. The Ga(III)-cupferron complexes, formed in the presence and absence of SDS, were spectroscopically confirmed and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-visible spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM/EDX). The bonding of cupferron with Ga(III) was considered to be as a bidentate ligand, and gallium formed 1:1.5 complexes with cupferron in aqueous solution. The separation mechanism of flotation was proposed owing to the formation of a physical interaction between the Ga(III)-cupferron complex and SDS. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.