More Antimony Properties

Antimony is pretty poor heat conductor. For comparison, copper’s thermal conductivity is roughly twenty times larger than antimony’s. Silver thermal conductivity is even bigger at almost twenty-five times that of antimony. In metals and metalloids, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity track each other. Antimony is typical in this regard as its electrical conductivity is only 1/27 that of copper. Antimony is atypical compared with other metals because it is fragile, readily fractures, is not malleable, and can be easily powdered. Interestingly, antimony loses mechanical strength as its purity increases. It seems that impurities seem to increase its strength. Antimony is an easily meltable nonferrous metal, melting at 630.5° C. Antimony is relatively volatile metal. However, there is considerable disagreement in the literature over vapor pressure data.