Antimony: the essentials

Metallic antimony is an extremely brittle metal of a flaky, crystalline texture. It is bluish white and has a metallic lustre. It is not acted on by air at room temperature, but burns brilliantly when heated with the formation of white fumes. It is a poor conductor of heat and electricity.

Antimony and its compounds are toxic. It is found mostly with other minerals and in stibnite.

Image adapted with permission from Prof James Marshall's (U. North Texas, USA) Walking Tour of the elements CD.

Cartoon by Nick D Kim ([Science and Ink], used by permission).

Antimony: historical information

Antimony was recognized in compounds by the ancients and was known as a metal at the beginning of the 17th century and possibly much earlier. Its most important mineral is stibnite, a mineral which formed the basis of black eye makeup in Biblical times. Antimony was sometimes confused with lead in those times. It seems not to be clear who first recognised antimony as an element but the French chemist Nicolas Lémery conducted much of the earlier studies on antimony chemistry.

Antimony is one of the elements which has an alchemical symbol, (right, {{floatR}}{{/floatR}} alchemy is an ancient pursuit concerned with, for instance, the transformation of other metals into gold).

Antimony around us Read more »

Antimony has no biological role. In small doses it is said to stimulate the metabolism.

Antimony is sometimes found as the free element, but more usually as antimony sulphide (Sb₂S₃, stibnite). It is found also as heavy metal antimonides and as antimony oxides

Abundances for cobalt in a number of different environments. More abundance data »

Location	ppb by weight	ppb by atoms	Links
Universe	0.4	0.004
Crustal rocks	200	30
Human	(no data) ppb by weight	(no data) atoms relative to C = 1000000

Physical properties Read more »

• Density of solid: 6697 kg m^-3
• Molar volume: |196| cm³
• Thermal conductivity: |206| W m^‑1 K^‑1

Heat properties Read more »

• Melting point: 903.78 [630.63 °C (1167.13 °F)] K
• Boiling point: 1860 [1587 °C (2889 °F)] K
• Enthalpy of fusion: |203| kJ mol^-1

Crystal structure Read more »

The solid state structure of antimony is: trigonal.

Antimony: orbital properties Read more »

Antimony atoms have 51 electrons and the shell structure is 2.8.18.18.5. The ground state electronic configuration of neutral Antimony is [Kr].4d¹⁰.5s².5p³ and the term symbol of Antimony is ⁴S_3/2.

• Pauling electronegativity: 2.05 (Pauling units)
• First ionisation energy: 834 kJ mol^‑1
• Second ionisation energy: 1594.9 kJ mol^‑1

Isolation

Isolation: it is not usually necessary to make antimony in the laboratory as it is commercially available. Antimony is found in nature in a number of minerals including stibnite (Sb₂S₃) and ullmanite (NiSbS). Small amounts of native antimony have been found. Some ores are treatable under reducing conditions to form Sb₂S₃. The sulphide is removed to leave elemental antimony with scrap iron.

Sb₂S₃ + 3Fe → 2Sb + 3FeS

In antehr process, some ores can be heated to evolve the oxide Sb₂O₃ and this in turn can be reduced by charcoal in the presence of sodium sulphate, to ensure mixing, to form elemental antimony.

2Sb₂O₃ +3C → 4Sb + 3CO₂

Antimony isotopes Read more »

The two Antimony isotopes are used for the production of medical radioisotopes. Sb-121 can be used for the production of I-124, although this medical radioisotope is usually produced via Te-124. Sb-121 and Sb-123 can both be used for the production of I-123, although the most common production route is via Xe-124 or Te-123.

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