Antimony

About: Antimony is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11450 publications have been published within this topic receiving 155660 citations. The topic is also known as: Sb & element 51.

Occupational exposure to antimony compounds

Abstract: The toxicology of antimony and its compounds is known from three sources: its medicinal use over centuries, studies of process workers in more recent times, and more recent still, studies of its presence in modern city environments and in domestic environments. Gross exposure to antimony compounds over long periods, usually the sulfide (SbS3) or the oxide (Sb2O3) has occurred in antimony miners and in antimony process workers. There have been relatively few of these, and few studies of possible symptoms have been made. Antimony sulfide imported from, at different times, China, South Africa, and South America was processed in the North-East of England from about 1870 to 2003. The process workers in North-East England have been studied at different times, notably by Sir Thomas Oliver in 1933, and by the Newcastle upon Tyne University Department of Occupational Medicine on later occasions. Studies which have been made of the working environment, and in particular of the risk of lung cancer in process workers, have underlined the high levels of exposure to antimony compounds and to other toxic materials. However, the working conditions in antimony processing have improved markedly over the last 30 years, and the workforce had been much reduced in numbers following automation of the process. Prior to the cessation of the industry in the UK it had become a 'white coat' operation with relatively few people exposed to high concentrations of antimony. Antimony, which is normally present in domestic environments, has also been studied as a possible cause of cot death syndrome (SIDS) but extensive investigations have not confirmed this. The full importance of environmental antimony has still to be determined, and evidence of specific effects has not yet been presented.

Study of the valence state and coordination of antimony in MoVSbO catalysts determined by XANES and EXAFS

Abstract: The coordination of antimony in the two phases, orthorhombic and hexagonal, of the MoVSbO mixed oxides catalysts has been investigated by EXAFS at the Sb K-edge at 77 K and its valence state by XANES at the Sb L 1 -edge. While XANES revealed that both phases contained Sb III and Sb V , it also demonstrated that the phase M1 contained mainly Sb V while the phase M2 contained mainly Sb III . From data obtained with the two techniques, it can be proposed that in both phases, Sb III and Sb V are mostly located in the windows of hexagonal channels of the structures. Sb III forms, with two oxygens of the hexagonal window and one oxygen in the channel, SbO 3 E trigonal pyramids similar to that in Sb 2 Mo 10 O 31 whereas Sb V forms, with two oxygens of the hexagonal window and two oxygens in the channel, SbO 4 trigonal bipyramids like in TeMo 5 O 16 (orthorhombic form). In the channels antimony and oxygens are thus forming mainly dimers [Sb–O–Sb] in the hexagonal phase and infinite chains [Sb–O] ∞ in the orthorhombic one. The results obtained allowed determining the formal stoichiometries of the two phases which are, respectively, (Sb 2 O)M 6 O 18 and (SbO) 2 M 20 O 56 with (M = Mo, V) and to discuss the anionic and cationic sub-stoichiometries encountered. The comparison with the tellurium environment in the similar phases is discussed.