Antimony trisulfide

can be prepared from the elements at temperature 500–900 °C: This reaction has been used as a gravimetric method for determining antimony, bubbling through a solution of Sb(III) compound in hot HCl deposits an orange form of which turns black under the reaction conditions. is readily oxidised, reacting vigorously with oxidising agents. In the extraction of antimony from antimony ores the alkaline sulfide process is employed where reacts to form thioantimonate(III) salts (also called thioantimonite): : A number of salts containing different thioantimonate(III) ions can be prepared from . These include: : Schlippe's salt, , a thioantimonate(V) salt is formed when is boiled with sulfur and sodium hydroxide. The reaction can be represented as: : ==Structure==

The structure of the black needle-like form of , stibnite, consists of linked ribbons in which antimony atoms are in two different coordination environments, trigonal pyramidal and square pyramidal. The red form, metastibnite, is amorphous. Recent work suggests that there are a number of closely related temperature dependent structures of stibnite which have been termed stibnite (I) the high temperature form, identified previously, stibnite (II) and stibnite (III). Other paper shows that the actual coordination polyhedra of antimony are in fact , with (3+4) coordination at the M1 site and (5+2) at the M2 site. These coordinations consider the presence of secondary bonds. Some of the secondary bonds impart cohesion and are connected with packing. ==References==