Antimony sputtering targets(Sb)Product overview

Antimony is a gray metal with a silver luster and a Mohs hardness of 3. Many objects have the characteristics of thermal expansion and contraction. For example, our commonly used thermometers utilize the principle of mercury thermal expansion and contraction. However, antimony is different in that it shrinks and expands in a certain temperature range.

Antimony is a nitrogen group element (group 15) with an electronegativity of 2.05 (Pauline scale). According to the periodic law of elements, its electronegativity is greater than that of tin and bismuth, but smaller than that of tellurium and arsenic. Antimony is stable in air at room temperature, but can react with oxygen to form antimony trioxide when heated. Antimony does not react with acids under normal conditions.

There are known four allotropes of antimony - a stable metal antimony and three metastable antimony (explosive antimony, black antimony, and yellow antimony). Metallic antimony is a brittle silver white shiny metal. "When the molten antimony is slowly cooled, the metal antimony will form a triangular crystal system, which is heteromorphic to the gray allotrope of arsenic.". The rare explosive form of antimony can be produced by electrolysis of antimony trichloride. Scratching it with a sharp tool will cause an exothermic chemical reaction, emitting white smoke and forming metallic antimony. If you grind it with a pestle in a mortar, a violent explosion will occur. Black antimony is formed by the rapid cooling of metal antimony vapor. Its crystal structure is the same as that of red phosphorus and black arsenic, and it is prone to oxidation and even spontaneous combustion in oxygen. When the temperature drops to 100 ℃, it gradually transforms into a stable crystal form. Yellow antimony is the most unstable type and can only be obtained by oxidation of hydrogen antimonide at - 90 ℃. Under the action of this temperature and ambient light, metastable allotropes can be converted into more stable black antimony.

The structure of metallic antimony is a layered structure (spatial group: R3m), and each layer contains a connected folded six-membered ring structure. The nearest and next nearest antimony atoms form a deformed octahedron, with three antimony atoms in the same double layer being slightly closer to each other than the other three. This relatively close proximity allows the density of metallic antimony to reach 6.697g/cm3, but the weak bonding between layers also makes it very soft and fragile.

Semiconductor industry