18 Facts About Barium

Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56.

Barium was identified as a new element in 1774, but not reduced to a metal until 1808 with the advent of electrolysis.

Barium compounds are added to fireworks to impart a green color.

Barium sulfate is used as an insoluble additive to oil well drilling fluid.

Barium is a soft, silvery-white metal, with a slight golden shade when ultrapure.

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Barium has a medium specific weight and high electrical conductivity.

Barium is chemically similar to magnesium, calcium, and strontium, but even more reactive.

Barium combines with several other metals, including aluminium, zinc, lead, and tin, forming intermetallic phases and alloys.

Barium salts are typically white when solid and colorless when dissolved.

Barium hydroxide was known to alchemists, who produced it by heating barium carbonate.

Barium has 10 meta states, of which barium-133m1 is the most stable with a half-life of about 39 hours.

Barium was first isolated by electrolysis of molten barium salts in 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy in England.

Barium sulfate was first applied as a radiocontrast agent in X-ray imaging of the digestive system in 1908.

Barium vapor is condensed and packed into molds in an atmosphere of argon.

Barium is suitable for this purpose because of its low vapor pressure and reactivity towards oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water; it can even partly remove noble gases by dissolving them in the crystal lattice.

Barium sulfate is important to the petroleum industry as a drilling fluid in oil and gas wells.

Barium sulfate has a low toxicity and relatively high density of ca.

Barium is becoming more popular to be used a base for palaeoceanographic proxies.