As the world's second largest solid fossil fuel deposit after coal, utilization of oil shale has become a research hotspot lately. The application of oil shale may be limited because of its high ash content. In this paper, froth flotation technology was used to treat oil shale. Oil shale samples were characterized by ultimate and proximate analyses. The collector was prepared using mechanical stirring and ultrasonic cell crusher methods. The dispersion of synthetic collectors was measured. When the mass ratio of kerosene to oleic acid was 1:1 and the agitation speed was 1800 rpm (hereinafter referred to as synthetic collector A), the dispersion property of the synthetic collector was the best, and the flotation results indicated that the flotation effect of synthetic collectors was improved. Collector adsorption measurements indicated that with increasing collector dosage, the adsorption quantity first increased and then leveled off at a dosage of 500 g/t. The infrared spectra of raw oil shale, kerosene, oleic acid and synthetic collector A were measured and the interactions between them were analyzed. The reasons for the good performance of synthetic collector A were found out.