![]() In a fire, antimony and chlorine recombine to form unstable compounds that remove oxygen from the air, smothering the flames (Gibson, 1998 Eyi, 2012).Īntimony is obtained from its ores, stibnite, Sb2S3 or tetrahedrite, 3Cu2S. During World War II, the fireproofing compound antimony trichloride (SbCl3) saved the lives of many American troops when it was applied to tents and vehicle covers. It helps to strengthen cable sheaths, chemical pumps, foils, plumbing fixtures and pipes, roofing sheets, and tank linings. UsesĪntimony's leading use is as a fire retardant in safety equipment and in household goods, such as mattresses.Īntimony has more uses of a direct military character than other members of the strategic group and probably more important uses than any of the others except mercury.Antimony is a hardening agent in metals used in ball bearings, bullets capable of penetrating armor plate, and lead shot. Today, antimony is used in lead-acid storage batteries for backup power and transportation in chemicals, ceramics, and glass in flameretardant materials and in heat stabilizers and plastics. Medieval alchemists thought that antimony could be used to convert lead into gold. For example, the ancient Egyptians and early Hindus used stibnite (Sb2S3), which is the major ore mineral for antimony, to produce black eye makeup as early as about 3100 B.C. The suggested descending order of toxicity is metalloid antimony (particularly stibine gas), the trisulfide, the pentasulfide, the trioxide, and the pentoxide.Īntimony has been an important mineral through much of human history. For example, the toxicity of pentavalent antimony compounds is less than that of trivalent compounds (DeWolff and Edelbroek, 1994). In the soils of the conterminous United States, it occurs at a geometrical mean of 0.48 ppm (Shacklett and Boerngen, 1984).īecause antimony is a group VA element, it has many of the same chemical and toxicological properties as arsenic and lead. Antimony trisulfide (symbol Sb2S3 CASRN ), is a chemical form of antimony (Beliles, 1979). The amount in the earth’s crust is <1 parts per million (ppm) its most common ore is stibnite (CASRN ). It is commercially available as a silver white lustrous solid metal or a dark gray powder (HSDB, 2005 Budavari, 1989). Alloys made from very high purity grade antimony with indium, gallium and bismuth are used as infrared detectors, diodes, hall effect devices and thermoelectric coolers.Ī natural element, antimony (symbol Sb CASRN ) occurs in valence states of 3, 5, and -3 and has both metallic and nonmetallic properties. Babbit metal, an alloy of antimony, tin, and copper is used to make antifriction machine bearings. The lead plates in the lead storage batteries constitute 94% lead and 6% antimony. Such alloys are used in battery grids and parts, tank linings, pipes and pumps. The metal makes its alloys hard and stiff and imparts resistance to corrosion. It is also found in lead scraps from batteries.Īntimony alloys have many commercial applications. Antimony occurs in nature primarily in the mineral stibnite, and also in several other ores, such as valentinite, senarmontite, cervantite, kermasite, livingstonite, and jamisonite. ![]()
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