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Fact Sheet 2015–3021

USGS Mineral Resources Program

Antimony—A Flame Fighter

By Niki E. Wintzer and David E. Guberman

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (1.4 MB)Summary

Antimony is a brittle, silvery-white semimetal that conducts heat poorly. The chemical compound antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) is widely used in plastics, rubbers, paints, and textiles, including industrial safety suits and some children’s clothing, to make them resistant to the spread of flames. Also, sodium antimonate (NaSbO3) is used during manufacturing of high-quality glass, which is found in cellular phones.

Humans have known about stibnite (Sb2S3), a lead gray antimony sulfide mineral, since ancient times. Egyptians used powdered stibnite in black eye makeup to create their signature look. Pedanius Dioscorides, a 1st century A.D. Greek physician, recommended stibnite for skin ailments. French and German doctors in the 17th century prescribed antimony-containing mixtures to induce vomiting. Antimony was later recognized to be an intense skin irritant and a lethal toxin, particularly when swallowed.

In the 11th century, the word antimonium was used by medieval scholar Constantinus Africanus, but antimony metal was not isolated until the 16th century by Vannoccio Biringuccio, an Italian metallurgist. In the early 18th century, chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius chose the periodic symbol for antimony (Sb) based on stibium, which is the Latin name for stibnite.

First posted April 24, 2015

For additional information, contact:
Mineral Resources Program Coordinator
U.S. Geological Survey
913 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
(703) 648–6100
http://minerals.usgs.gov

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Suggested citation:

Wintzer, N.E., and Guberman, D.E., 2015, Antimony—A flame fighter: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2015-3021, 2 p., https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20153021.

ISSN 2327-6916 (print)

ISSN 2327-6932 (online)


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