Antimony Facts

Antimony is a chemical element. The name is derived from two Greek words: 'anti' which means not and 'monos' which means alone. The stable non-radioactive isotope of antimony looks like an unprocessed silver-white metallic rock. This particular element is a constituent used in manufacturing gun bullets. Without much ado, let us straight away move on to take a look at the facts, segregated under various categories.

Chemical Properties

Antimony is the 5th row P-block element of the periodic table.

Name:	Antimony
Symbol:	Sb
Atomic Number:	51
Atomic Mass:	121.76 amu (of the stable Sb-121)
Isotopes:	There are 12 isotopes of antimony: Sb-117, Sb-119, Sb-120, Sb-121 (Stable), Sb-122, Sb-123 (Stable), Sb-124, Sb-126, Sb-126m, Sb-127, Sb-129. Only 2 of these types are stable, while rest are highly radioactive with half life varying from 15 min to 60 days. The Sb-123 form is not found naturally, so only one stable form can be extracted from ores.

Physical Properties

Classification:	Metalloid (neither a metal nor a non-metal)
Melting Point:	630.0 °C (1166.0 °F)
Boiling Point:	1750.0 °C (3182.0 °F)
Crystal Structure:	Rhombohedral
Density (at room temperature):	6.684 g/cm3.
Thermal and Electrical Conductivity:	Insulator for both

History

Antimony ores were first encountered in the 4th century BC. The ore antimony trisulfide (Sb₂S₃) was used in paste form, as a cosmetic, in ancient Egypt and Middle East. An antimony laden artifact dated 3000 BC was discovered in Tello, Chaldea (presently in Iraq). An antimony plated copper object dating somewhere between 2500 BC and 2200 BC has been unearthed in Egypt.

The first mention of a process of isolating pure antimony from its ore can be found in the book De la pirotechnia by Vannoccio Biringuccio, written in Italian in the year 1540. This book was released much before the highly acclaimed Latin book, De re metallica, written by Agricola in 1556. In spite of this, Agricola is often accredited with the discovery of antimony, which is absolutely incorrect.

The first record of pure or 'native' antimony's natural occurrence, in the Earth's crust, was the mention by the Swedish local mine district engineer and scientist Anton von Swab in 1783. This unadulterated sample was gathered from the Sala silver mine in a mining district of Sala, Västmanland in Sweden.

Uses and Application

Antimony, which adds hardness and smoothness, is mainly used in lead alloys, like for use in batteries to provide better finishing. Increase in proportion of this element in the lead alloy imparts hardness along with making it more brittle. Like water, antimony alloys have this peculiar property of expanding, when approaching freezing temperatures, along with retaining finer details of a mold. This is one of the reasons why these alloys are used in making typefaces for sharp and clear printing.

These days antimony is being increasingly used by semiconductor manufacturers in the production of diodes, IR detectors, and Hall-effect devices. It is a major constituent of small arms and ammunitions. Medicines like anti-protozoan drugs have this element in traces. Oxides and sulfides of antimony and compounds like sodium antimonate, and antimony trichloride are used to make ceramic enamels, glass, flame-proofing compounds, paints, and pottery.

Occurrence

Antimony is rarely found in its purest noble form. It is more frequently found in the form of sulfide (Sb₂S₃), which is antimony's predominant mineral ore. China produces almost 84% of the world's antimony. There, the Xikuangshan mine of Hunan Province has the largest antimony ore deposits with an estimated 2.1 million metric tons. South Africa, Bolivia, Tajikistan and Russia are other places where antimony is encountered. In the west of Atlantic, Brazil and Central America has one antimony mine each, but have a very negligible contribution to the world's reserve of this element.

Antimony itself and many of its compounds are highly toxic. Although not as prevalent, antimony poisoning causes similar effects like arsenic poisoning. It can cause headache, body pain and dizziness, and if its concentration rises, poisoning could be the result in type of violent and frequent vomiting, and may even lead to death.

I hope these facts and properties about this chemical element proved helpful, and make a significant addition to your knowledge base of various elements.