Antimony discontinued. Antimony is resistant to attack by acids. Four allotropes of antimony are known: a stable metallic form and three metastable forms (explosive, black and yellow). Elemental antimony is a brittle, silver-white shiny metalloid. When slowly cooled, molten antimony crystallizes in a trigonal cell, isomorphic with the gray allotrope of arsenic. A rare explosive form of antimony can be formed from the electrolysis of antimony trichloride. When scratched with a sharp implement, an exothermic reaction occurs and white fumes are given off as metallic antimony forms; when rubbed with a pestle in a mortar, a strong detonation occurs. Black antimony
Fluorine Carbon tetrafluoride is tetrahedral and inert; its group analogues, silicon and germanium tetrafluoride, are also tetrahedral but behave as Lewis acids. The pnictogens form trifluorides that increase in reactivity and basicity with higher molecular weight, although nitrogen trifluoride resists hydrolysis and is not basic. The pentafluorides of phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony are more reactive than their respective trifluorides, with antimony pentafluoride the strongest neutral Lewis acid known. Chalcogens have diverse fluorides: unstable difluorides have been reported for oxygen (the only known compound with oxygen in an oxidation state of +2), sulfur, and selenium; tetrafluorides and hexafluorides exist for sulfur, selenium,