In
chemistry, antimonite refers to a
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
of
antimony
Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...
(III), such as NaSb(OH)
4 and NaSbO
2 (meta-antimonite), which can be prepared by reacting
alkali with
antimony trioxide, Sb
2O
3.
[Egon Wiberg, Arnold Frederick Holleman (2001) ''Inorganic Chemistry'', Elsevier ] These are formally salts of antimonous acid,
Sb(OH)
3, whose existence in solution is dubious. Attempts to isolate it generally form Sb
2O
3·''x''H
2O, antimony(III) oxide hydrate, which slowly transforms into Sb
2O
3.
In
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
, the mineral
stibnite
Stibnite, sometimes called antimonite, is a sulfide mineral with the formula Sb2 S3. This soft grey material crystallizes in an orthorhombic space group. It is the most important source for the metalloid antimony. The name is derived from the ...
, Sb
2S
3, is sometimes called antimonite.
Antimonites can be compared to
antimonate In chemistry an antimonate is a compound which contains a metallic element, oxygen, and antimony in an oxidation state of +5. These compounds adopt polymeric structures with M-O-Sb linkages. They can be considered to be derivatives of the hypothetic ...
s, which contain antimony in the +5 oxidation state.
References
Antimony(III) compounds
Oxyanions
{{inorganic-compound-stub
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