Antimony ore

Antimony ore

　　Antimony ore

　　Lengshuijiang enjoys the reputation of being the "Antimony Capital of the World," accounting for 60% of global production.

　　Antimony, with atomic number 51 and atomic weight 121.75, derives its element name from the English term, originally meaning "stibnite." Antimony was discovered in ancient times. It makes up 0.0001% of the Earth's crust and mainly exists in elemental form or as stibnite and valentinite.

　　Antimony is a brittle, lustrous silver-white solid and has two allotropes: the yellow variant is stable only below -90

　　C

　　; the metallic variant is the stable form of antimony. It has a melting point of 630.5

　　°C

　　, a boiling point of 1750

　　°C

　　, and a density of 6.684 g/cm³. At 2070

　　°C

　　, antimony vapor consists of monatomic molecules.

　　When heated to red heat, antimony reacts with water to release hydrogen; at high temperatures, it can react with oxygen to form antimony trioxide, an amphoteric oxide that is poorly soluble in water but dissolves in acids and bases; it can also react with concentrated nitric acid.

　　In metallurgy, antimony is mainly used in making alloys; it is also used in semiconductors; antimony trioxide can also serve as a transparent enamel white pigment.