* Antimony is a member of the semi-metals family:
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ANTIMONY / Sb / 51
Elemental antimony can be obtained as a brittle silvery metallic
material, or as gray nonmetallic powder. Its symbol Sb comes from
the Latin "stibium" for the compound antimony sulfide (Sb2S3). Two
isotopes are found in nature, including Sb<121/51> (57%) and
Sb<123/51> (43%). Both are stable.
atomic weight: 121.760
abundance: 63rd
density: 6.691 gm/cc
melting point: 631 C
boiling point: 1,650 C
valence: -3 <3> 5
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Antimony is an industrially significant material, with production in the tens of thousands of tonnes a year. The bulk of it is used in the form of antimony oxide (Sb2O3), which is used as a flame-retardant additive to plastics. It is also used as an alloying material. It is a nasty toxin, but was unfortunately used in small doses as a medicine once upon a time, usually as a purgative. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart may have been done in by antimony medicines.
