Here is more info on barium from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.Analysis of the X-ray image from the barium enema enables physicians to diagnose disorders such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, polyps, cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome. Barium sulfate absorbs X-rays and appears white on the X-ray film, in contrast to the air and surrounding tissue that appear black. Then, X-raysare used to produce an image of the lower GI tract. Air is typically administered next to make sure the barium coating fills all surface abnormalities. During the procedure, barium sulfate is instilled via the rectum to coat the inner walls of the large intestine. Several patients were also accidentally killed by barium when soluble barium carbonate rather than insoluble barium sulfate was mistakenly used during a gastroenterological (GI) diagnostic test called a barium enema.ĭoctors perform barium enemas in order to visualize and diagnose abnormalities of the large intestine and rectum, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. There have been a handful of murders with barium compounds, including a 1994 murder of a man in Mansfield, Texas, by his 16-year-old daughter, Marie Robards, who stole barium acetate from her high school chemistry laboratory. Barium can cause vomiting, colic, diarrhea, tremors and paralysis. However, large quantities of soluble barium salts can be toxic and even deadly, according to John Emsley in his book ' The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison' (Oxford University Press, 2005). These low levels of barium serve no biological role and are not harmful. Barium levels in your teeth can actually help scientists determine when babies transition from breast-feeding to eating solid foods. The average adult contains about 22 mg of barium because it is present in foods such as carrots, onions, lettuce, beans, and cereal grains. Barium carbonate is used as a rat poison, and barium nitrate and barium chlorate produce green colors in fireworks. Barium sulfate, or barite, is used in lithopone (a brightening pigment in printer paper and paint), oil well drilling fluids, glassmaking and creating rubber. Because barium has a loose hold on its electrons, its alloys emit electrons easily when heated and improve the efficiency of the spark plugs, according to Krebs.Ĭompounds containing barium have a variety of commercial uses.

Pure barium can also be combined with other metals to form alloys that are used to make machine elements such as bearings or spark plugs in internal combustion engines. However, its strong attraction to oxygen makes it useful as a 'getter' to remove the last traces of air in vacuum tubes. Commercial uses of bariumĮlemental barium does not have many practical uses, again due to its high level of reactivity. This accounts for barium's high level of reactivity especially with electronegative elements like oxygen. Barium is in period, or row, 5, so it holds its valence electrons in its fifth shell and can lose the electrons, or become oxidized, very easily. Each of their atoms contains two valence (outermost) electrons. Classified as an alkaline earth metal, it is located in group, or column, 2 on the periodic table, along with beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium and radium. Pure barium is a soft, silvery white metal. (Image credit: Greg Robson/Creative Commons, Andrei Marincas Shutterstock) Properties of barium Because the barium salts were molten, the barium ions easily moved to the container with the negative electrode, and the other negative ions easily moved in the opposite direction to the container with the positive electrode.Įlectron configuration and elemental properties of barium. During electrolysis, an electric current is run through the ionic substance in order to separate ions from each other. The prominent chemist and inventor Sir Humphry Davy used electrolysis to separate the barium from molten barium salts such as barium hydroxide (Ba(OH) 2). Pure barium metal was not isolated and identified until 1808 at the Royal Institution in London. In the late 18th century, barium oxide (BaO) and barium carbonate (BaCO 3) were discovered by German chemist Carl Scheele and English chemist William Withering, respectively. He named these pebbles 'Bologna stones' after his hometown, but they were later determined to be barium sulfate (BaSO 4). Vincenzo Casciarolo, a 17th-century Italian alchemist, first noticed barium in the form of unusual pebbles that glowed for years after exposure to heat, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. Number of natural isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 7.Melting point: 1,341 degrees Fahrenheit (727 degrees Celsius).Density: 2.09 ounces per cubic inch (3.62 grams per cubic cm).Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 137.327.Atomic symbol (on the periodic table of elements): Ba.Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 56.

Ba element