Tin is stable in air, but burns to form SnO2 at high temperatures. It reacts with halogen intensively to produce Sn halogen. The valence is 2 or 4.

Crystal System

Three types of structural changes occur depending on temperature.

A tin is called gray tin and has the property of the semiconductor with the diamond structure of a lattice constant of a=0.649 nm and atomic distance 0.28 nm. b tin is called white tin or metallic tin and belongs to the tetragonal white tin structure, which is stable at room temperature with a lattice constant of a=0.583 nm and c=0.318 nm.

Production

To obtain the vacuum evaporated films, direct heating within the helical coil of chromel or the conical basket or the boat heater of Ta or Mo is performed. The external heating of W embedded in alumina is also available. The rate of evaporation is 1.66×10-4 g/cm²sec at the evaporation temperature of 1189℃.