Antimony trioxide has a wide range of applications and my country has become a major producer in the world.
Antimony trioxide, commonly known as antimony white, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Sb2O3. It appears as a white crystalline powder. It is toxic and irritating. It is slightly soluble in water, dilute nitric acid, and dilute sulfuric acid, and soluble in concentrated hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. , alkaline solution, etc. Antimony trioxide has good flame retardant effect and professional insulation characteristics. It can be used as pigment, flame retardant, mordant, catalyst, heat stabilizer, clarifier, etc. in electronics, coatings, chemicals, plastics, rubber, It is widely used in textile, leather, building materials and other fields.
The production methods of antimony trioxide mainly include fire method and wet method. Among them, the fire method is currently the mainstream method for producing antimony trioxide. There are two main production paths for the fire method, namely the direct method, which refers to using antimony ore or metal antimony as raw materials, and directly generating antimony trioxide through high-temperature oxidation and volatilization. The indirect method refers to the method of using pure metal antimony as raw material and generating antimony trioxide through heating, melting, oxidation, volatilization, cooling and other links.
Antimony trioxide is the earliest applied flame retardant. When used alone, the dosage is large and the flame retardant effect is poor. Therefore, it is usually used in conjunction with halogen compounds to greatly improve the flame retardant effect. In addition to excellent flame retardancy, antimony trioxide (halogen) synergistic flame retardant also has the advantages of good environmental protection, strong versatility, good durability, good resistance to mechanical loss, non-toxic, low cost, etc., and is suitable for PVC, PP, PE, PS, ABS, PU and other plastics, the terminal fields include plastics, textiles, rubber, electronics, etc.
At the same time, as relevant research continues to deepen, the application fields of antimony trioxide have gradually expanded, and can also be used to prepare potassium antimony tartrate, glazes, fire retardants, lead softeners, glass decolorizers, petroleum metal passivators, etc. Antimony trioxide is a chemical raw material with great development potential. Currently, its scale continues to expand amid the rapid development of its downstream application fields. According to the “2023-2027 China Antimony Trioxide Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report” released by the Industrial Research Center It shows that the global antimony trioxide market size will be approximately US$780 million in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%.
In the global market, antimony trioxide production companies mainly include international companies such as Midland Chemical and Minerals of the United States, Azelis of the United Kingdom, Nihon Seiko of Japan, US Antimony of the United States, and Elements of the United States, as well as Hubei Yongcheng Industrial, Shanshan Western Minmetals, Hunan Nonferrous Metals Group, Hunan Xinli Antimony Industry, Chengdu CNBM Optoelectronic Materials, Guizhou Dongfeng Antimony Industry, Hubei Zhongzhi Chemical Industry, Guangxi Shengfu Antimony Technology, Loudi Xinghua Nonferrous Metals, Chenzhou Jinxin Materials, etc.
Industrial analysts personnel said that my country is currently the country with the largest output of antimony resources in the world, benefiting from abundant raw material reserves As well as the continuous improvement of technology of related domestic enterprises, my country has become the world’s major producer of antimony trioxide, with output ranking among the top in the world. However, due to technical limitations, domestic antimony trioxide is mostly mid- to low-end products with larger particles and lower purity. In the future, local companies will need to continue to optimize process technology and increase the supply capacity of high-end antimony trioxide market.