BariumShaun Reynolds

History

The name Barium originates from the Greek word Barys meaning heavy having to do with the density of certain Barium-containing ores.

Barium was discovered by Carl Wilhelm in 1774 in Europe but received its final name from Sir Humphrey Davy in England.

Properties

Barium’s natural state is a silvery white solid at room temperature.

Barium’s Melting point is 727°C while its boiling point is 1897°C

The density of Barium is 3.51g/cm3

Properties Continued

Barium is composed of seven stable isotopes. There are twenty two known isotopes but they are mostly radioactive with have half-lives that range from milliseconds to a few seconds.

The two most stable isotopes of Barium are 133Barium(10.51 years) and 137mBarium(2.55 minutes).

Availability

Barium is found and extracted from barite. The barite is then heated to produce Barium Sulfide. After the Barium Sulfide is hydrolyzed it can then be used.

Cost of the Element

Barium has a cost of $55 per 100 grams

Applications

The main application of Barium is as a “getter” which means to remove the last traces of gas in electronic vacuum tubes such as cathode ray tubes.

Certain alloys of Barium are used with nickel in spark plug wire.

Barium Compound Applications Barium Sulfate(BaSO4)

is used in the petroleum industry as drilling mud acting as a weighting agent in drilling new oil wells.

Because of its opacity to X-rays, the sulfate can be used as a radiocontrast agent for X-ray images of digestive systems

Other Applications of Barium Compounds

Barium oxide is used in coating for the electrodes of fluorescent lamps

Barium Nitrate is used to give green fireworks there color from the Barium monochloride species.

References

http://www.webelements.com/barium/

http://answers.ask.com/Science/Chemistry/how_much_does_barium_cost

www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-binfoxweb/huntsearch/DetailedR...ode=GLAHM

http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=Ba

References Continued

http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/ba.htm

http://www.speclab.com/elements/barium.htm

http://www.umm.edu/radiology/barium.htm

www.medicine.cu.edu.eg/englishstudents/study/x_ray_surgery/xray/intestine/142.htm