![]() ![]() It was subsequently replaced by praziquantel. Potassium antimonyl tartrate, or tartar emetic, was once used as an anti-schistosomal drug from 1919 on. Antimony compounds are used as antiprotozoan drugs. Treatments containing antimony, known as antimonials, are used as emetics. Biology and medicine have few uses for antimony. Other uses of antimony alloys include type metal (in printing presses), bullets and cable sheathing.Īntimony compounds are also used to make flame-retardant materials, paints, enamels, glass and pottery. A lead-antimony alloy is used in batteries. Isotopes that are lighter than the stable 123Sb tend to decay by β + decay, and those that are heavier tend to decay by β − decay, with some exceptions.Īntimony is used in the electronics industry to make some semiconductor devices, such as infrared detectors and diodes.It is alloyed with lead or other metals to improve their hardness and strength. The most stable of these is 120m1Sb with a half-life of 5.76 days. In addition, 29 metastable states have been characterized. ![]() It also has 35 radioisotopes, of which the longest-lived is 125Sb with a half-life of 2.75 years. It has two stable isotopes: 121Sb with a natural abundance of 57.36% and 123Sb with a natural abundance of 42.64%. ![]() It is also found in chemical compounds such as antimony (II) sulfide.Īntimony is stable in air at room temperature, but reacts with oxygen if heated to produce antimony trioxide, Sb 2O 3. A metalloid is a chemical element that has a mixture of properties between a metal and nonmetal. The atomic number of antimony is 51 and its atomic weight of 121.8g/mol. This atomic symbol is derived from the Latin name for antimony, stibium. Some are semi-conductors and can carry an electrical charge making them useful in calculators and computers.Īntimony is a chemical element that is recognized by its distinctive atomic symbol of Sb. An element classified as one of the Metalloids has the properties of both metals and Non-Metals. Antimony is classified as a “Metalloid” element and is located in Groups 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 of the Periodic Table. Its elements can be classified based on their physical states (States of Matter) e.g. Other producers are Bolivia, Russia and Tajikistan. China produces 88% of the world’s antimony. The first natural occurrence of pure antimony in the Earth’s crust was described by the Swedish scientist and local mine district engineer Anton von Swab in 1783 the type-sample was collected from the Sala Silver Mine in the Bergslagen mining district of Sala, Västmanland, Sweden. Antimony can also be found as the native metal. ![]() It is extracted by roasting the antimony (III) sulfide to the oxide, and then reducing with carbon. It is most often found as antimony (III) sulfide. It can be found in over 100 species of minerals. Occurrences, Production and Properties of AntimonyĪntimony is a silvery-white brittle solid found in the earth’s crust, estimates of the amount of antimony in the crust are between 0.2 and 0.5 ppm. The industrial methods for refining antimony are roasting and reduction with carbon or direct reduction of stibnite with iron. This was found in the glaze of ornamental bricks at Babylon and date from the time of Nebuchadnezzar (604–561 BC).įor some time, China has been the largest producer of antimony and its compounds, with most production coming from the Xikuangshan Mine in Hunan. The most famous user was the temptress Jezebel whose exploits are recorded in the Bible.Īnother pigment known to the Chaldean civilization, which flourished in what is now southern Iraq in the 6th and 7 th centuries BC, was yellow lead antimonite. The black form of this pigment, which occurs naturally as the mineral stibnite, was used as mascara and known as khol. Antimony sulfide (Sb 2S 3) is mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus of the 16 th century BC. It is used in a wide variety of alloys, especially with lead in car batteries, and in the manufacture of flameproofing compounds.Īntimony and its compounds were known to the ancients and there is a 5,000-year old antimony vase in the Louvre in Paris. Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were powdered for use as medicine and cosmetics, often known by the Arabic name, kohl. Antimony is a metalloid element having many forms, the most common of which is a hard, very brittle, shiny, blue-white crystal. ![]()
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