Antimony is a hard, brittle element used to modify alloys and make specialized semiconductor materials. Adding it to lead improves hardness and strength. Antimony compounds also participate in flame-retardant materials, showing how alloy composition and chemical compounds provide different routes to useful properties.
FROM ELEMENT TO APPLICATION
AN ELEMENT IN CONTEXT
How can antimony help a battery through a mechanical role?
Lead–antimony alloy
FOLLOW THIS RELATIONSHIP
Identify the lead-based part
Selected storage-battery components use a lead–antimony alloy. Lead supplies the main material framework, while antimony is incorporated as an alloying ingredient.
Explore the model (optional)
SbFORM → INTERACTION → CONSEQUENCE
Follow the explanation in either direction. These are authored steps, not a physical clock.
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USE THE EXPLANATION
What does antimony’s strengthening role establish about the battery?
Atomic identity, reference properties and structure models
INTERACTIVE 3D51 visible sites
An electron censusDrag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p3. Grouping electrons by principal shell connects the neutral-atom configuration to periodic-table patterns.
What this representation means
A three-dimensional counting diagram. Dots are count markers, not measured electron positions; spherical placement and spacing are arbitrary. There are no electron trajectories here. Orbitals describe quantum states.
Antimony-containing materials were known in antiquity, well before the modern definition of an element. Stibnite was used as a dark cosmetic pigment, while antimony-containing yellow glazes appeared in ancient Mesopotamia. These are histories of compounds, not proof that every user recognized pure antimony. Later metalworking exploited antimony's ability to harden lead, linking an old tradition to a different form and function.
16th century BCE
Stibnite recorded
An Egyptian papyrus mentions the antimony sulfide pigment.
7th–6th centuries BCE
Yellow glazes used
Antimony-containing yellow pigments were used in Babylonian decorative glazes.
Stibnite, antimony , is an important antimony , and native antimony also occurs. Antimony can accompany other metals in mineral deposits. Seeing the symbol Sb in a resource description does not specify its physical form: the element may be bound to sulfur rather than present as metallic .
Antimony is a semimetal rather than a readily shaped structural metal. In lead-based , however, it contributes useful hardness. Its and sulfides are separate chemical substances with other roles. Distinguishing these forms is especially important because historical use does not establish that a material is harmless.
Each section links its supporting references. Descriptions and diagrams were authored for this atlas. Source checks completed. Source checks dated 2026-09-06.
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Family labels and the group-3 layout are teaching conventions. A table position does not establish an unknown bulk property. Electronic configurations refer to neutral atoms; ions and material environments require their own account.
Read each reference property together with its units, conditions and the reference information below.
Not yet recorded: electron affinity, second ionization energy, ground-state term symbol, van der waals radius, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity, crystal structure, lattice parameter a, space group, abundance in seawater, abundance in the universe, annual production, supply-risk listing, hazard classification, biological role, cas registry number, pubchem cid, wikidata item. These families are declared and awaiting an ingestion run against the source each names; they are listed here rather than shown as empty rows.
Physical
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Phase at 20 °C
solid
293.15 K, 101.325 kPa
Melting point in K
903.78 K
at standard pressure unless noted
Boiling point in K
1860 K
101.325 kPa
Density in g/cm³
6.68 g/cm³
solids and liquids at 293 K; gases at 273 K and 101.325 kPa
Atomic and electronic
Intended reference: Pauling electronegativity scale · Widely tabulated; original in The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Electronegativity in Pauling
2.05 Pauling
Pauling scale
First ionization energy in kJ/mol
834 kJ/mol
gas-phase neutral atom, ground state
Covalent radius in pm
139 pm
single-bond covalent radius
Common oxidation states
-3, +3, +5
states met in ordinary compounds; not exhaustive
Occurrence and identity
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Abundance in the crust in mg/kg
0.2 mg/kg
upper continental crust, mass fraction
Has stable isotopes
Yesderived
Discovery year
Not recorded
WHERE IT SITS AMONG ITS NEIGHBORS
Electronegativity across period 5
Sb 2.05 Pauling · Antimony
Electronegativity across period 5. Exact values.
Rb
0.82
Sr
0.95
Y
1.22
Zr
1.33
Nb
1.6
Mo
2.16
Tc
1.9
Ru
2.2
Rh
2.28
Pd
2.2
Ag
1.93
Cd
1.69
In
1.78
Sn
1.96
Sb
2.05
Te
2.1
I
2.66
Xe
2.6
Electronegativity down group 15
Sb 2.05 Pauling · Antimony
Electronegativity down group 15. Exact values.
N
3.04
P
2.19
As
2.18
Sb
2.05
Bi
2.02
The trend uses the same reference-property values as the periodic table. Elements with no recorded value are left out of the line rather than drawn at zero.
