Fifty-four

[Guest Edgy DC]

Rockin' Doc wrote: Willets - "Oh how I look forward to Hydrogen day!" I believe I may have the same pair of dirigibles bouncing about my mind's eye in anticipation of helium day.

That's not for the last day but for 14 days out.

[Willets Point]

Things I Remember From High School Chemistry Class, part I:

Silcone is not silicon.

Wikipedia explains.

]Silicone is often mistakenly referred to as "silicon". Although silicones contain silicon atoms, they are not made up exclusively of silicon, and have completely different physical characteristics from elemental silicon. The word "silicone" is derived from ketone. Dimethylsilicone and dimethyl ketone (a.k.a. acetone) have analogous formulas, thus it was surmised incorrectly that they have analogous structures. The same terminology is used for compounds such as silane (an analogue of methane). A true silicone group with a double bond between oxygen and silicon does not exist (see figure). Polysiloxanes are called "silicone" due to early mistaken assumptions about their structure.

[metirish]

Is that the legacy Lima has left to baseball,her nockers?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Thanks for trying to correct my booby joke, but I really can't read while those things are ^bu^mpⁱn^g u^p aⁿd ^do^wn.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

metirish wrote: Is that the legacy Lima has left to baseball,her nockers?

And his hair.

[metsmarathon]

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Te

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Okay, it's official: 6 honorary Schaefer points to metsmarathon for introducing the periodic table of the elements to this countdown!

Nice job!

Now, anyone who posts a picture of a uniform number gets a ten-yard penalty.

[Willets Point]

Unless someone has a picture of say David Wright holding some boron, Keith Hernandez in a chlorinated pool, or Wayne Garret with a shaker of salt.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tellurium (IPA: /tiˈlʊəriəm, tɛ-/) is a chemical element that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle silver-white metalloid which looks like tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. Tellurium is primarily used in alloys and as a semiconductor.

Notable characteristics

---

Tellurium is a relatively rare element, in the same chemical family as oxygen, sulfur, selenium, and polonium (the chalcogens).

When crystalline, tellurium is silvery-white and when it is in its pure state it has a metallic luster. This is a brittle and easily pulverized metalloid. Amorphous tellurium is found by precipitating it from a solution of tellurous or telluric acid (Te(OH)6). However, there is some debate whether this form is really amorphous or made of minute crystals.

Tellurium is a p-type semiconductor that shows a greater conductivity in certain directions which depends on atomic alignment. Chemically related to selenium and sulfur, the conductivity of this element increases slightly when exposed to light.

It can be doped with copper, gold, silver, tin, or other metals. When in its molten state, tellurium is corrosive to copper, iron, and stainless steel.

Tellurium gives a greenish-blue flame when burned in normal air and forms tellurium dioxide as a result.

Applications

---

Metal alloys

• It is mostly used in alloys with other metals. It is added to lead to improve its strength and durability, and to decrease the corrosive action of sulfuric acid. *When added to stainless steel and copper it makes these metals more workable. It is alloyed into cast iron for chill control.

Other uses:

• Used in ceramics.


• It is used in chalcogenide glasses.


• Tellurium is also used in blasting caps. (Dont' play with blasting caps --- Willie Mays)


• Organic tellurides have also been employed as initiators for living radical polymerisation and electron-rich mono- and di-tellurides possess antioxidant activity.

High-purity metalorganics of both selenium and tellurium are reported to be obtained by using innovative chemical purification strategy, also called adduct purification. These high purities are often required for semiconductor industry uses.

Semiconductor industry uses:

• Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) has found use in thermoelectric devices.


• Tellurium has potential applications in cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels. Some of the highest efficiencies for solar cell electric power generation have been obtained by using this material, but this application has not yet caused demand to increase significantly. If some of the cadmium in CdTe is replaced by zinc then CdZnTe is formed which is used in solid-state x-ray detectors.


• Alloyed with both cadmium and mercury, to form mercury cadmium telluride, an infrared sensitive semiconductor material is formed. Organotellurium compounds such as dimethyl telluride, diethyl telluride, diisopropyl telluride, diallyl telluride and methyl allyl telluride are used as precursors for MOVPE growth of II-VI compound semiconductors. Diisopropyl telluride (DIPTe) is employed as the preferred precursor for achieving the low temperature growth of CdHgTe by MOVPE.

History

---

Tellurium (Latin tellus meaning "earth") was discovered in 1782 by the Hungarian Franz-Joseph M�ller von Reichenstein (M�ller Ferenc) in Nagyszeben (now, Sibiu) Transylvania. In 1789, another Hungarian scientist, P�l Kitaibel, also discovered the element independently, but later he gave the credit to M�ller. In 1798, it was named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth who earlier isolated it.

Tellurium was used as a chemical bonder in the making of the outer shell of the first atom bomb. The 1960s brought growth in thermoelectric applications for tellurium, as well as its use in free-machining steel, which became the dominant use.

Occurrence

---

Tellurium is sometimes found in its native (elemental) form, but is more often found as the tellurides of gold (calaverite, krennerite, petzite, sylvanite, and others). Tellurium compounds are the only chemical compounds of gold found in nature, but tellurium itself (unlike gold) is also found combined with other elements (in metallic salts). The principal source of tellurium is from anode sludges produced during the electrolytic refining of blister copper. It is a component of dusts from blast furnace refining of lead. Tellurium is produced mainly in the US, Canada, Peru, and Japan.

Commercial-grade tellurium is usually marketed as minus 200-mesh powder but is also available as slabs, ingots, sticks, or lumps. The year-end price for tellurium in 2000 was US$ 14 per pound.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Wow, for only $14, I'd consider buying a pound of tellurium. I just don't know if I'd prefer to get it in sticks or lumps. I've pretty much ruled out slabs and ingots. Who would want that?

[nymr83]

whats with the bouncing boobs? i thought we tried to keep this place "work safe"?

[seawolf17]

Willets Point wrote: Unless someone has a picture of say David Wright holding some boron, Keith Hernandez in a chlorinated pool, or Wayne Garret with a shaker of salt.

But salt isn't an element, so that'd be a foul.

[soupcan]

Buncha nerds.

[seawolf17]

[metsmarathon]

="soupcan"]Buncha nerds.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

soupcan wrote: Buncha nerds.

Sit on it, Potsie.

[metsmarathon]

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Sb

[Guest Edgy DC]

Antimony (IPA: /anˈtɪməni/) is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Sb (Latin: stibium, meaning "mark") and atomic number 51. A metalloid, antimony has four allotropic forms. The stable form of antimony is a blue-white metalloid. Yellow and black antimony are unstable non-metals. Antimony is used in flame-proofing, paints, ceramics, enamels, a wide variety of alloys, electronics, and rubber.

Notable characteristics

---

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. It is also attacked by oxidizing acids and halogens. Antimony and some of its alloys are unusual in that they expand on cooling.

Estimates of the abundance of antimony in the Earth's crust range from 0.2 to 0.5 ppm. Antimony is geochemically categorized as a chalcophile, occurring with sulfur and the heavy metals lead, copper, and silver.

Applications

---

Antimony is increasingly being used in the semiconductor industry in the production of diodes, infrared detectors, and Hall-effect devices. As an alloy, this metalloid greatly increases lead's hardness and mechanical strength. The most important use of antimony is as a hardener in lead for storage batteries. Uses include:

• Batteries


• antifriction alloys


• type metal


• small arms and tracer ammunition


• cable sheathing


• matches


• medicines


• plumbing


• soldering - some "lead-free" solders contain 5% Sb


• main and big-end bearings in internal combustion engines (as alloy)


• used in the past to treat Schistosomiasis; today Praziquantel is universally used


• used in linotype printing machines

Antimony compounds in the form of oxides, sulfides, sodium antimonate, and antimony trichloride are used in the making of flame-proofing compounds, ceramic enamels, glass, paints, and pottery. Antimony trioxide is the most important of the antimony compounds and is primarily used in flame-retardant formulations. These flame-retardant applications include such markets as children's clothing, toys, aircraft and automobile seat covers. Also, antimony sulfide is one of the ingredients of safety matches.

The natural sulfide of antimony, stibnite, was known and used in Biblical times as medicine and as a cosmetic. Stibnite is still used in some developing countries as medicine. Antimony has been used for the treatment of schistosomiasis. Antimony attaches itself to sulfur atoms in certain enzymes which are used by both the parasite and human host. Small doses can kill the parasite without causing damage to the patient. Antimony and its compounds are used in several veterinary preparations like Anthiomaline or Lithium antimony thiomalate, which is used as a skin conditioner in ruminants. Antimony has a nourishing or conditioning effect on keratinized tissues, at least in animals. Tartar emetic is another antimony preparation which is used as an anti-schistosomal drug. Treatments chiefly involving antimony have been called antimonials.

A coin made of antimony was issued in the[Keichow Province of China in 1931. The coins were not popular, being too soft and they wore quickly when in circulation. After the first issue no others were produced.

Etymology of the Name

---

The etymology of the name antimony has not been determined, and it has been a matter of much speculation for centuries, with all claims lacking proof. Reportedly, its first use in a text (as antimonium) was in a text by Constantine the African, renowned for translating Arabic medical treatises into Latin. It should be understood that until at least the European Middle Ages, people knew of antimony's leading ore, stibnite (antimony III trisulfide, Sb₂S₃), but they were not aware that the free element, which was produced only rarely, was a substance distinct from other metals. The pure metalloid was usually confused with lead. The sulfide was called stibi (στιβι) or stimmi in Ancient Greek, stibium in Latin ("stibium" was used by Pliny in 50 AD). In Arabic, powdered stibnite is kuḥl (IPA [kuħl]), whence English kohl; but in time, ithmid (IPA [iθmid], where [θ] is pronounced as the 'th' in English "think") came to be used also.

A widely repeated etymological claim is that "antimony" is a compound of Greek anti- and monos (literally "against single") and supposedly means "not found unalloyed"[4]. But this claimed etymology has apparently not been proven, and several other chemical elements known in antiquity also do not occur in the free (i.e., elemental) state. In 1919, the scholar von Lippmann published his proposal of a different Greek etymology: anthemonion, "bloom"[5]. An Arab-Spanish ophthalmologist, Muḥammad ibn Qass�m ibn Aslam Al-Gh�fiq�, writing some time between the 11th and 12th centuries, claimed that the names for antimony sulfide in Arabic, Latin, and Greek all derived from the Coptic word, mesdemet. He claimed as well that the term "antimony" was a fallacious rendering of the Arabic name, al-iθmid (where al- means "the". This is not to say that this Al-Gh�fiq� was the first or the only scholar to make the second claim. In any case, the claim is not substantiated and moreover it is highly dubious for two reasons. Firstly, it was, as noted above, used by Constantine the African, who was an Arabic speaker, a native of Carthage. Secondly, it would entail an extreme degree of phonetic corruption not manifested in dozens of other Arabic loanwords in Medieval Latin and Spanish.

History

---

The chemical pioneer J�ns Jakob Berzelius used an abbreviation of the name stibium to refer to antimony in his writings, and his usage became the standard chemical symbol for antimony.

Antimony's sulfide compound, antimony III trisulfide, Sb₂S₃ was recognized in antiquity, at least as early as 3000 BC. Pastes of Sb₂S₃ powder in fat[7] or in other materials have been used since that date as eye cosmetics in the Middle East and farther afield; in this use, Sb₂S₃ is called "kohl". It was used to darken the brows and lashes, or to draw a line around the perimeter of the eye.

A vase made of antimony dating to about 3000 BC was found at Tello, Chaldea, and a copper object plated with antimony dating between 2500 BC and 2200 BC has been found in Egypt. According to the history of metallurgy the first description of the procedure to isolate antimony is in the Italian book "De la pirotechnia" of 1540 of Vannoccio Biringuccio. This book precedes the more famous Latin book "De re metallica" of 1556 of Agricola, although the latter has been often incorrectly considered the discoverer of metallic antimony.

Alchemical symbol for antimony

According to the traditional history of western alchemy metallic antimony was described (previous to Biringuccio) by the Prior Basilius Valentinus in the Latin manuscript "Currus Triumphalis Antimonii" of about 1450, published, in the English translation "The triumphal chariot of antimony", only in 1604 by Johann Th�lde (1565-1614). The marvellous finding of all of the Valentinus' manuscripts, as in the alchemical tales, is fully described by Jean-Jacques Manget in his Bibliotheca chemica curiosa (1702): these manuscripts remained enclosed for more than a century in a pillar of St. Peter's Abbey, at Erfurt, until the pillar was shattered by a thunderbolt. Many authors consider Basilius Valentinus a mythological personage: the most authoritative of them is Leibniz (1646-1716), who declared after a careful search that the Prior Valentinus never existed in the Abbey of Erfurt, but was only a pseudonym, probably of Th�lde himself, used to merge poorly-translated materials of various origins.

According to the traditional history of Middle Eastern alchemy, pure antimony was well known to Geber, sometimes called "the Father of Chemistry", in the 8th century. Here there is still an open controversy: Marcellin Berthelot, who translated a number of Geber's books, stated that antimony is never mentioned in them, but other authors claim that Berthelot translated only some of the less important books, while the more interesting ones (some of which might describe antimony) are not yet translated, and their content is completely unknown.

Sources

---

Native massive antimony with oxidation productsEven though this element is not abundant, it is found in over 100 mineral species. Antimony is sometimes found native, but more frequently it is found in the sulfide stibnite (Sb₂S₃) which is the predominant ore mineral. Commercial forms of antimony are generally ingots, broken pieces, granules, and cast cake. Other forms are powder, shot, and single crystals.

Country	Tonnes	% of total
People's Republic of China	126 000	81.5
Russia	12 000	7.8
South Africa	5 023	3.3
Tajikistan	3 480	2.3
Bolivia	2 430	1.6
Top 5	148 933	96.4
Total world	154 538	100.0

Chiffres de 2003, m�tal contenue dans les minerais et concentr�s, source : L'�tat du monde 2005M

The largest mine in China is Xikuangshan mine in Hunan Province.

Precautions

---

Antimony and many of its compounds are toxic. Clinically, antimony poisoning is very similar to arsenic poisoning. In small doses, antimony causes headache, dizziness, and depression. Larger doses cause violent and frequent vomiting, and will lead to death in a few days.

Leaching from PET

---

A study found that antimony is leaching from PET bottles (reported for some acidic fruit drinks), but at levels below drinking water guidelines. The guidelines are:

• WHO, 20 �g l^�1
  
• US EPA, Health Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Environment, 6 �g l^�1


• German Federal Ministry of Environment, 5 �g l^�1


• Japan, 2 �g l^�1

The acidic nature of the drink is sufficient to dissolve small amounts of antimony oxide contained in the packaging of the drink; modern manufacturing methods prevent this occurrence. However, researchers are concerned that antimony levels correspond to duration the bottle is left to stand - the longer the water has been bottled, the higher the antimony leached.

Compounds

---

• Antimony pentafluoride SbF₅
  
• Antimony trioxide Sb₂O₃


• Stibine (antimony trihydride SbH₃)


• Indium antimonide (InSb)

[seawolf17]

Does anyone actually plan on reading anything that long about antimony? Perhaps it's vastly more interesting to learn about Antimony Gerhardt:

]Grad student Antimony Gerhardt dies at 24 Anne Trafton, News Office November 28, 2005 A memorial service was held at MIT last Tuesday, Nov. 22, for Antimony L. Gerhardt, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, who died Nov. 17 in her Cambridge apartment. She was 24. Gerhardt's death appeared to be a result of injuries suffered following an accident in her apartment, said her mother, Gwendolyn Gerhardt. Gerhardt worked in the Microsystems Technology Laboratories and was also involved in community service as a member of MedLinks, an advocacy group of MIT students who help their peers get medical information. She came to MIT in the fall of 2000 from Hammond, La. Her mother had been staying with her in Cambridge after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August. Her classmates knew Gerhardt as "a beautifully kind, brilliant, inspiring young woman," said Nancy Keuss, a senior in physics. "She was consummately focused and dedicated as a student," Keuss said. "She was the person I'd think of when I imagined what a future successful, happy professional would look like." Martin Schmidt, director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories, said she was a "very impressive" student who earned a master's degree only three and a half years after arriving as a freshman at MIT. She was on track to finish her Ph.D. next year. "She just seemed to have everything going for her," Schmidt said. "She was athletic, smart, very outgoing and engaging, and extremely giving of her time to others." In 2002, she was named a Burchard Scholar in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Gerhardt was a nationally ranked high school tennis player and played on the MIT women's tennis team during her freshman year. "She was very friendly, polite, and a great team member," said her MIT tennis coach, Carol Matsuzaki. "She took things seriously but always had a smile on her face." Gerhardt's friendly manner also made an impression on the housemasters at MacGregor House, where she lived as an undergraduate. Munther Dahleh and Jinane Abounadi, both members of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, recalled meeting Gerhardt during her freshman year and described her as very polite and well liked.

A sad story... but if your name is Antimony, I guess your destiny would likely be in the sciences.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's twice, seawolf. Watch out.

[seawolf17]

Sorry, Edge. (Although I think I missed the first one, whatever that was.)

[metsmarathon]

i was gonna post her pic, but decided against it.

i wonder why one would name their daughter after a toxic element...

i don't think the wifey would let me name our daughter "arsenic marathon"

[soupcan]

]Gerhardt's death appeared to be a result of injuries suffered following an accident in her apartment, said her mother, Gwendolyn Gerhardt.

I'm thinking she slipped in the shower.

I read somewhere that the highest percentage of injuries that occur in the home are of the shower slipping variety. Really. The best man at my parent's wedding died that way.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I never shower alone.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I never even shower.

[MFS62]

soupcan wrote: I read somewhere that the highest percentage of injuries that occur in the home are of the shower slipping variety. Really. The best man at my parent's wedding died that way.

If he died during the shower, how was he still alive for the wedding?

Later

[soupcan]

Here you go geeks...

[Willets Point]

seawolf17 wrote: Does anyone actually plan on reading anything that long about antimony?

The cut & paste from Wikipedia is kind of tiring to me too. I hope Edgy just links in the future.