

: 758Īntimony is a silvery, lustrous gray metalloid with a Mohs scale hardness of 3, which is too soft to mark hard objects. Antimony is stable in air at room temperature, but reacts with oxygen if heated to produce antimony trioxide, Sb 2O 3. In accordance with periodic trends, it is more electronegative than tin or bismuth, and less electronegative than tellurium or arsenic. Antimony is used as a dopant in semiconductor devices.Ĭrystal structure common to Sb, AsSb and gray AsĪntimony is a member of group 15 of the periodic table, one of the elements called pnictogens, and has an electronegativity of 2.05.

Antimony trioxide is a prominent additive for halogen-containing flame retardants. It improves the rigidity of lead-alloy plates in lead–acid batteries. The largest applications for metallic antimony are in alloys with lead and tin, which have improved properties for solders, bullets, and plain bearings. The industrial methods for refining antimony from stibnite are roasting followed by reduction with carbon, or direct reduction of stibnite with iron. The earliest known description of the metal in the West was written in 1540 by Vannoccio Biringuccio.Ĭhina is the largest producer of antimony and its compounds, with most production coming from the Xikuangshan Mine in Hunan. Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were powdered for use as medicine and cosmetics, often known by the Arabic name kohl. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb 2S 3). 12.Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from Latin: stibium) and atomic number 51. NPB is N, N’-bis(naphthalen-1-yl)- N, N’-bis(phenyl)benzidine, CAS Registry no. The Materials Project database contains a profuse amount of information on Sb 2Se 3, including a rotatable 3-D image of its crystal structure.ġ. This refinement increased the photogenerated carrier lifetime of the cell and suppressed interface recombination near the anode. They improved the performance of the films by using a highly aromatic small molecule called NPB 1 to induce the crystallization of Sb 2Se 3 during the annealing process. In any case, the researchers describe their preparation of thin films of crystalline Sb 2Se 3 as a key component of solar cells. In their work to develop high-performance solar cells, the authors note that Sb 2Se 3 has attractive properties such as “appropriate band gap, high absorption coefficient, single-phase structure at room temperature, inert grain boundaries, earth-abundant constituents, relatively cheap price, and low toxicity”, although that last claim can be called into question. As Chuan-Hui Cheng, Weifeng Liu, and colleagues at the Dalian University of Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Dalian), and Hainan University (all in China) put it, “Antimony selenide ( Sb 2Se 3) is an emerging photovoltaic material.” Most of these uses have been disontinued because of the dangers associated with the compound (see the hazard information table).īut Sb 2Se 3 is becoming a 21st century player in the field of electronics. Historically, Sb 2Se 3 has been used in pyrotechnics and flares and as an ingredient in paint pigments, glass, matches, and explosives.

In 1924, Ludwig Moser and Kasimir Atynski at the Technical University of Vienna made it in pure form by treating an aqueous solution of potassium antimony tartrate with hydrogen selenide gas. Chrétien prepared crude Sb 2Se 3 from the elements in 1906. It is primarily found in China, the Czech Republic, and Russia.įrench scientist P. Its black orthorhombic crystals have a metallic luster. Antimony triselenide (Sb 2Se 3) is an inorganic compound that occurs in nature as the mineral antimoselite.
