Antimony triselenide is the

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

with the

formula In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwe ...

. The material exists as the sulfosalt

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

antimonselite ( IMA

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

: Atm), which crystallizes in an orthorhombic

space group In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a repeating pattern in space, usually in three dimensions. The elements of a space group (its symmetry operations) are the rigid transformations of the pattern that ...

. In this compound, antimony has a formal

oxidation state In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical Electrical charge, charge of an atom if all of its Chemical bond, bonds to other atoms are fully Ionic bond, ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons ...

+3 and selenium −2. The bonding in this compound has covalent character as evidenced by the black color and semiconducting properties of this and related materials. The low-frequency dielectric constant (ε₀) has been measured to be 133 along the ''c'' axis of the crystal at room temperature, which is unusually large. Its band gap is 1.18 eV at room temperature. The compound may be formed by the reaction of

antimony Antimony is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Sb () and atomic number 51. A lustrous grey metal or metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...

with

selenium Selenium is a chemical element; it has symbol (chemistry), symbol Se and atomic number 34. It has various physical appearances, including a brick-red powder, a vitreous black solid, and a grey metallic-looking form. It seldom occurs in this elem ...

and has a melting point of 885 K.

Applications

is now being actively explored for application thin-film solar cells. A record light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 9.2% has been reported.

References

Selenides Antimony(III) compounds {{inorganic-compound-stub