General
- Antimony in its elemental form
is a silvery white, brittle, fusible, crystalline solid that
exhibits poor electrical and heat conductivity properties and
vaporizes at low temperatures. A metalloid, antimony resembles a
metal in its appearance and in many of its physical properties,
but does not chemically react as a metal.
- At least six principal methods
are or have been used to extract antimony from its ores. The
method used depends on whether the ore is a sulfide, an oxide, or
a complex ore, and on the grade, which ranges widely from about
1.5 percent to more than 60 percent antimony by weight.
Process
- The intermediate grades of
antimony ore of all kinds are smelted in a blast furnace. This is
the most important process for the extraction of antimony from its
ores. The furnace feed can consist of briquette fines or flue
dust, mattes, mixed ores, oxides, sulfides, and residues and
slag's,. The large amount of slag formed is beneficial in reducing
volatilization losses of the metal. The product is impure antimony
metal.
- In this process, the
higher-grade sulfide ores are heated in reverberate furnaces or
crucible furnaces in a reducing atmosphere at from 550 to 600
o C, temperatures below
the volatilization temperature of the stibnite but above its
melting point. The molten sulfide trickles down through the ore
mass and is collected at a lower level of the furnace. The
solidified sulfide, which is more than 70 percent antimony, is
usable for some purposes as is, or it may be converted to metal or
oxide.
Production
- Production of antimony trioxide
is forecast to continue to grow in response to rising demand for
flame retardants in various products and for catalysts in PET
production, although not as quickly as the end-use products
because of possible inroads by competitive formulations and
reductions in unit requirements.
- Antimony has been widely used
as a catalyst in the production of PET plastic for nearly thirty
years. Consumers can rest assured that Antimony and its
application for PET food and beverage containers are well tested
and regulated for safety.
- Primary antimony accounts for
only about one-fifth of the antimony used in batteries but for
larger proportions in most other metallic products and usually
accounts for all the antimony used in nonmetallic products.
Market
- Antimony sulfide ore is
marketed in at least three forms for which prices are published—
lump sulfide ore (minimum 60 percent contained antimony), clean
sulfide concentrate (minimum 60 percent contained antimony), and
Chinese concentrate (minimum 60 percent antimony, maximum 30 parts
per million (ppm) mercury, and typically 60 ppm selenium).
- Antimony is used in the
manufacturing of products such as textiles and plastics for its
flame retardant properties, as a catalyst, a pigment, to improve
the properties of friction materials, and as a de-foaming agent in
the production of glass. With the development new types
of electronic power devices, the demand has increased for large
diameter heavily antimony doped silicon.
- Flame retardants account for
about 70% of primary antimony demand and 90% of the demand for
antimony trioxide. More stringent flammability standards and
safety legislation, together with increased demand for plastics
and IT-related products, will result in higher demand for flame
retardants.
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