Foreword to the Special Issue on ‘Antimony in the Environment: A Chinese Perspective’
Montserrat Filella A C and Mengchang He BA Department F.-A. Forel, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
B State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
C Corresponding author. Email: Montserrat.Filella@unige.ch
Environmental Chemistry 17(4) 303-303 https://doi.org/10.1071/ENv17n4_FO
Published: 22 June 2020
Antimony is a widely used chemical element, particularly important in the areas of flame retardants and alloys. Emissions to the environment have significantly increased – there has been a 100-fold increase in antimony atmospheric deposition since the industrial revolution – as reflected in elevated concentrations in soils, sediments, water, plants and organisms, and greater human and ecosystem exposure. Global antimony consumption was estimated to be 160 000 t in 2019 (USGS 2020). China is the world’s leading antimony producer and also a major user of this metalloid; thus, environmental issues associated with antimony are particularly acute in this country (He et al. 2012). Concurrently, a lot of research is being carried out in China on different aspects of antimony environmental issues with a strong emphasis on pollution treatment and remediation procedures. Accordingly, and not surprisingly, studies in this Special Issue mostly focus on problems and processes associated with mining-related pollution.
A large population-based study including 4733 participants (You et al. 2020) demonstrates that exposure to high levels of antimony may impair liver function in adults. The study highlights the potential hazard to liver function of antimony exposure and provides convincing evidence of the need to monitor and control antimony exposure in the prevention of liver dysfunction.
The treatment of antimony contamination in mining tailings and polluted soils is a pressing issue. Li et al. (2020), after studying the behaviour and fate of antimony and arsenic in contaminated soil–plant systems, identified suitable plant species for phytoremediation, with Pueraria lobate proving to be a better adaptor for phytostabilisation of abandoned antimony-bearing tailings and Thysanolaena maxima suitable for phyto-extraction of antimony and arsenic in contaminated soils. A remediation strategy using granular titanium dioxide as adsorbent is proposed by Jiang et al. (2020), their method allowing the on-site remediation of antimony-contaminated water.
A detailed understanding of the behaviour of antimony in acid mine drainage is also needed to counteract pollution effects in the most efficient way. Secondary iron minerals (i.e. schwertmannite, jarosite, goethite and ferrihydrite) formed in such drainage waters are able to sorb SbIII and SbV with a complex relationship existing between transformation of the secondary iron minerals and antimony immobilisation (Wang et al. 2020).
Antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) is not only the principal weathering product of the ore mineral stibnite (Sb2S3) but a compound used in, and released from, many antimony processes and manufactured products. Therefore, mastering antimony trioxide processes is a requisite for improving our understanding of the geochemical cycle and fate of antimony. Shan et al. (2020) contribute to the processes already known by studying the promoted oxidative dissolution mechanism of Sb2O3 by birnessite (δ-MnO2).
We hope that this Special Issue will foster scientific collaboration within the antimony scientific community in China and abroad. We thank the authors and referees for their contributions to this Special Issue.
Montserrat Filella and Mengchang He
Editor and Guest Editor
Environmental Chemistry
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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