Pnictogens: Elements of the Fifth Main Group

This chapter presents a compact, comprehensive overview of the pnictogens. These chemically versatile elements can occur in numerous oxidation states. Their character ranges from non-metallic (nitrogen, partly also phosphorus) to semi-metallic (arsenic, antimony) to metallic (bismuth and moscovium). Antimony has been known for several thousand years, arsenic for about 800, phosphorus for 350, and nitrogen and bismuth for 250 years. Even moscovium has been described in its basic features for about 20 years. An apparently “old” family of elements then? Not at all! Researchers and users constantly receive new results, there are so many applications that we can only report the most important here.