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 info:
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.
More info 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. You can follow us on social media using #IYPTCrystals and learn more about the wonders of crystals by following the CCDC on Twitter @ccdc_cambridge on Facebook ccdc.cambridge, on Instagram ccdc_cambridge or on YouTube CCDCCambridge.
If you want to find out more about some of the terms and concepts we have a Frequently Asked Questions Page.
A visualisation showing the structure containing Antimony alongside other structures published in the same scientific article: