Distribution of Valence States of Recoil Antimony Atoms in Inorganic Compounds

Abstract

Potassium antimonate was irradiated with thermal neutrons to investigate the distribution of recoil antimony atoms between the tri-and pentavalent states. The retention values were found to be decreased linearly with the decrease of the amounts of crystalline water in the compound. It may be supposed that the OH radical in the crystal may play an important role on the valence states of recoil antimony atoms.
This supposition might be reasonable as compared with the results obtained for the antimony exchange reaction in a heterogeneous system (liq.-solid system) .