The process of the present invention separates and produces relatively pure antimony sulfides from the hereinafter set forth starting materials, and these antimony sulfides can then be conventionally converted to antimony oxides, a basic raw material for many products.Ī process is disclosed for recovering antimony sulfides from aqueous solutions comprising thioantimony compounds and thioarsenic compounds by subjecting the solution to selective oxidation by reacting the thioantimony compounds with sufficient oxygen so as to maintain a final solution e.m.f.

The process of the present invention effects such a separation, and thereby produces a valuable product from what is generally considered to be a waste product stream. No process is known which is capable of highly selective recovery of antimony sulfides from solutions which comprise antimony sulfides and arsenic sulfides. 1,528,004 to Bassett describes a process for recovering arsenic from complex arsenic sulfides by roasting the ore in the presence of sufficient air in order to oxidize the arsenic to arsenous oxide while minimizing any oxidation of the sulfur. The metal sulfides are then recovered by means of precipitation and flotation. 2,348,360 to Reed discloses a method of recovering minerals from ores comprising copper, bismuth, tin, mercury, antimony, arsenic, and others by leaching the ore and solublizing the various metal sulfide components, and then sequentially oxidizing the various metal sulfides by means of air and sulfur dioxide. These processes are primarily dependent upon the primary recovery mechanisms employed for recovering the more abundant mineral values in the ore bodies. Numerous ore bodies exist which possess considerable amounts of arsenic and antimony, and various processes have been developed to recover these values. This invention relates generally to the treating of solutions to obtain antimony values, and more particularly to recovering these antimony values as antimony sulfides.

The merits of AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7 as a solar cell absorber and ways to increase the J sc in the AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7 solar cell to match its J L are discussed.A process is disclosed for separating antimony sulfides from solutions comprising anitmony sulfides and arsenic sulfides by subjecting the solution to partial oxidation within prescribed pH limits in order to oxidize and precipitate a substantial portion of the antimony sulfides while leaving substantially all of the arsenic sulfides in solution. In AgSbS 2 solar cell, η is of 0.54% with a V oc of 0.625 V. A solar cell of SnO 2:F/CdS(80 nm)/AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7(700 nm)/C-Ag, produced by heating at 280 ☌ with the graphite (C) electrode applied, shows a conversion efficiency ( η) of 0.65%, open-circuit voltage ( V oc) of 0.537 V, short-circuit current density ( J sc) of 2.07 mA cm −2, and fill factor of 0.60. The photoconductivity in AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7 of 2 × 10 −5 Ω −1 cm −1 is an order of magnitude higher than that in AgSbS 2. The optical bandgap of 1.8 eV (direct forbidden) in AgSbS 2 reduces to 1.47 eV in AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7 with an increase in the light-generated current density from 19 to 29 mA cm −2.

The face-centered cubic (fcc) structure of AgSbS 2 (cuboargyrite) is maintained in AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7. Silver antimony sulfide selenide (AgSbS 1.3Se 0.7) thin film forms from silver antimony sulfide (AgSbS 2, 700 nm) and amorphous selenium (Se, 300 nm), both obtained via chemical deposition and heated in contact at 180 ☌ for 30 min in an argon ambient.

Antimony sulfide