Period 5 element with most production coming from the Xikuangshan Mine in Hunan. Antimony compounds are prominent additives for chlorine and bromine containing fire retardants found in many commercial and domestic products. The largest application for metallic antimony is as alloying material for lead and tin. It improves the properties of the alloys which are used as in solders, bullets and ball bearings. An emerging application is the use of antimony in microelectronics. Tellurium is a chemical element that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid which looks similar to tin, tellurium is chemically related
Application of silicon-germanium thermoelectrics in space exploration Application of silicon-germanium thermoelectrics in space exploration Silicon-germanium (SiGe) thermoelectrics have been used for converting heat into power in spacecraft designed for deep-space NASA missions since 1976. This material is used in the radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) that power "Voyager 1", "Voyager 2", "Galileo", "Ulysses", "Cassini", and "New Horizons" spacecraft. SiGe thermoelectric material converts enough radiated heat into electrical power to fully meet the power demands of each spacecraft. The properties of the material and the remaining components of the RTG contribute towards the efficiency of this thermoelectric conversion. Heavily doped semiconductors, such as silicon-germanium (SiGe) thermoelectric couples (also called