Antimony

Antimony (Sb) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years

Research intensity has climbed steadily over the last decade, reaching about 56% of the element's all-time peak, a level that remains well below the historic high set in 1971.

Research intensity ran from about 39% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 56% in 2026 — a steady climb, and the all-time peak (1971) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, antimony has a mid-sized research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 3,584 in 2016 to about 9,187 in 2025 (2.56x). That matches the growth of the literature as a whole over the same years: the general tide of scientific output, not a surge specific to the element.

The largest share of recent antimony research belongs to work on antimony co-occurrence with arsenic in mining environments. This community focuses on antimony-arsenic co-contamination in mine drainage and the speciation of antimony in mining areas, with distinctive attention to antimony removal and antimony mine settings. Antimony is one strand of a broader community, appearing in about 12% of its papers. It holds about 21% of the element's recent research, a steady share compared to the previous period. A key anchor is a 2021 review in Environment International on antimony contamination and risk management, cited over 350 times.

A significant and growing area is antimony chalcogenide absorbers in thin-film photovoltaics. These papers develop antimony sulfide and selenide thin films as light-absorbing layers for efficient solar cells, often using antimony selenosulfide. Antimony is a minor presence in this much larger community, involved in about 4% of its papers. However, its share of antimony-specific research has grown to about 11%, up from 7% in the previous period. Recent work includes a 2025 study in Advanced Energy Materials on 8.26%-efficient Sb2S3 solar cells, cited about 68 times.

Another steady contributor is lead-free hybrid halide perovskites for optoelectronics. This work develops antimony-based hybrid halide perovskites as lead-free alternatives, focusing on zero-dimensional structures and circularly polarized light emission. Antimony is a minor presence here, involved in about 1% of the community's papers, but it accounts for about 8% of antimony's recent research, up from 4% previously. A notable 2024 paper in Nature Energy on enhancing perovskite solar cells with antimony-doped tin oxides has been cited over 140 times.

Finally, research on antimonene 2D materials and electronic properties has seen a decline in relative share. This community focuses on the synthesis and electronic structure of monolayer antimonene and nanosheets. Antimony is a minor presence in this broader 2D materials field, involved in about 3% of its papers. Its share of antimony research has fallen to about 5%, down from 12% in the previous period. A foundational 2017 review in Chemical Society Reviews on 2D group-VA semiconductors remains highly cited, with over 860 citations.

Overall, the composition of antimony research has shifted slightly away from 2D materials and toward environmental applications and photovoltaic materials, while the remainder of the literature holds a steady majority share.

For a deeper look at the current state of antimony research, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.