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- Name : Antimony
- Symbol : Sb
- Atomic # : 51
- Atom weight: 121.75
- Melting P. : 630.74
- Boiling P. : 1750
- Oxidation : +3, -3, +5
- Pronounced : AN-teh-MOH-ni
- From : Greek anti+monos, "not along"; suggests that the metal is not
- found along in nature; the symbol is taken from the name of
- mineral stibnite, the most common natural source of antimony.
- Identified : Compounds known in ancient times
- Appearance : Hard, silvery-white, brittle semimetal
- Note : Used to make alloys
-
- [Properties]
-
- Antimony is a silvery-white crystalline substance that has a metallic
- luster. It is brittle, yet soft - that is, it fractures readily into small
- pieces, yet scratches easily, too. This element is in the oxygen group,
- Group VIA, on the periodic chart.
- Physically, antimony behaves more like a nonmetal such as sulfur. It is
- a poor conductor of heat and electricity, and it flakes and crumbles easily.
- Chemically, antimony resembles a metal. It alloys readily with most metals,
- it is found in nature in the company of other metals such as lead and
- silver, and it behaves ionically like a metal.
- There are two allotropic forms of antimony: the normal metallic form and
- an amorphous gray form. Older texts refer to explosive and yellow forms as
- well, but these have been shown to be compounds rather than two additional
- allotropes of the element.
-