Antimony
Antimony:
The alchemical symbol for Antimony rendered in elemental antimony.
Facts about Antimony:
- Antimony: Metallic grey solid.
- Fun fact about Antimony: Antimony is a constituent of fluoroantimonic acid, the strongest known superacid. It is a staggering 20 quintillion times stronger than pure sulphuric acid!
- Chemical symbol: Sb
- Atomic number: 51
A crystal structure containing Antimony:
Image showing the chain of four different group 15 elements or pnictogens, the heaviest of which is antimony.
Facts about this structure:
- Formula: C36 H58 As Cl2 N P Sb,0.5(C6 H14)
- Structure name:N-(dichlorostibino)-N-(2,4,6-tri-t-butylphenyl)-As-((2,4,6-tri-t-butylphenyl)phosphinidene)arsine-amine hexane solvate
- Fun fact about the structure: Antimony is in group 15 of the periodic table. This structure contains a chain comprising the first four elements in this group (though not in the right order!).
- CSD refcode: AREBOQ (What’s this?)
- Associated publication: Alexander Hinz, Axel Schulz, Alexander Villinger, Chemistry, A European Journal, 2016, 22(35), 12266, DOI: 10.5517/ccdc.csd.cc1lhph8
More about Antimony:
One of a handful of elements to have been known since antiquity, antimony has very little name recognition compared to other ancient elements such as iron and lead despite being the first to be named in Tom Lehrer’s famous Elements song. Antimony compounds were used by the ancient Egyptians in their cosmetics and by the ancient Greeks in various medicines. As an element it was known to the scholars of the Islamic Golden Age and was represented by its own symbol in Western alchemy. Nowadays antimony is used to tweak the properties of various metal alloys and, like the other metalloid elements, it is often incorporated into semiconductors used in electronic devices.
Learn More About the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) in Crystals Project:
This project (#IYPTCrystals) is part of the International Year of the Periodic Table celebration (#IYPT2019), read more about the project here.
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A 3D visualization showing Antimony in real crystal structures: