The invention discloses a collecting agent for water-soluble cations, a preparation method of the collecting agent for the water-soluble cations and application of the collecting agent for the water-soluble cations. The collecting agent for the water-soluble cations is characterized in that the collecting agent for the water-soluble cations is an alkylamine surface-
active agent with two hydroxypropyl bases or two chlorinated hydroxypropyl bases in each alkylamine molecule. The preparation method of the collecting agent for the water-soluble cations comprises the steps that continuous stir is carried out, and aliphatic amines in a container are dissolved with absolute ethyl
alcohol; propylene epoxides or
epoxy chloropropane is slowly added under the conditions that the temperature is 25 DEG C, the
backflow state is formed, and the time ranges from 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours, and the reaction is continuously carried out for 10 hours, wherein the quantity ratio between aliphatic amines and the propylene oxides or the
epoxy chloropropane is 1 to 2-3; reactant is transferred to a
distillation system, and unreacted propylene oxides or unreacted
epoxy chloropropane and unreacted absolute ethyl
alcohol are removed through
distillation under the appropriate
distillation conditions; the temperature of a
reaction system is lowered to be equal to the
room temperature, and the needed collecting agent can be obtained. The collecting agent for the water-soluble cations is high in water
solubility, and can be used for
reverse flotation desiliconization of
iron ore or flotation of
silicate minerals, and when the collecting agent for the water-soluble cations is used for flotation of artificial mixed ore,
iron ore concentrate with the iron grade larger than 65% can be obtained at the normal temperature, wherein the artificial mixed ore is formed by
hematite and
quartz in the mode that the
mass ratio between the
hematite and the
quartz is 3 to 2.