Barium , including Technical Data, Safety Data and its High Purity properties, research, applications and other useful facts are discussed below. Scientific facts such as the atomic structure,ionization energy, abundance on Earth, conductivity and thermal properties are included.

Barium is a member of the alkaline-earth metals. It has technical applications in glass, electronics and medicine. It is also used in paints and colorants. Barium is available asmetal and compounds with purities from 99% to 99.999% (ACS grade to ultra-high purity); metals in the form of foil, sputtering target, and rod, and compounds assubmicron and nanopowder. Electronic coatings based on barium titanate are essential to cell phones and other microelectroinics. It has long been used in medical diagnostic techniques because it makes a good x-ray contrast medium. Barium is a dopant in various fluorescent lamp coating formulas.

 Barium facts, including appearance, CAS #, and molecular formula and safety data, research and properties are available for many specific states, forms and shapes on the product pages listed to the left. Elemental or metallic forms include pellets, rod, wire and granules for evaporation source material purposes.Nanoparticles and nanopowdersprovide ultra high surface area which nanotechnology research and recent experiments demonstrate function to create new and unique properties and benefits. 

Oxides are available in forms including powders and dense pellets for such uses as optical coating and thin film applications.Oxides tend to be insoluble. Fluorides are another insoluble form for uses in which oxygen is undesirable such as metallurgy, chemical and physical vapor deposition and in some optical coatings. Barium is available in soluble forms including chlorides, nitrates and acetates. These compounds are also manufactured as solutions at specified stoichiometries. 

Barium is a Block S, Group 2, Period 6 element. The number of electrons in each of Barium‘s shells is 2, 8, 18, 18, 8, 2 and its electronic configuration is [Xe] 6s2. In its elemental form barium‘s CAS number is 7440-39-3. The barium atom has a radius of 217.4.pm and it‘s Van der Waals radius is 200.pm. 

All elemental metals, compounds and solutions may be synthesized in ultra high purity (e.g. 99.999%) for laboratory standards, advanced electronic, thin fillm deposition using sputtering targets andevaporation materials, metallurgy and optical materials and other high technology applications. Information is provided for stable (non-radioactive) isotopes. Organo-Metallic Barium compounds are soluble in organic or non-aqueous solvents. See Analytical Services for information on available certified chemical and physical analysis techniques including MS-ICP, X-Ray Diffraction, PSD and Surface Area (BET) analysis. 

The main commercial source for barium is barite. Barium was first discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808.

Abundance. The following table shows the abundance of barium and each of its naturally occurringisotopes on Earth along with the atomic mass for each isotope.

Isotope	Atomic Mass	% Abundance on Earth
Ba-130	129.906310	0.106
Ba-132	131.905056	0.101
Ba-134	133.904503	2.417
Ba-135	134.905683	6.592
Ba-136	135.904570	7.854
Ba-137	136.905821	11.23
Ba-138	137.905241	71.70

The following table shows the abundance of Barium present in the human body and in the universe scaled to parts per billion (ppb) by weight and by atom:

	Typical Human Body	Universe
by Weight	300 ppb	10 ppb
by Atom	14 ppb	0.09 ppb

Safety Data and Biological Role. The safety data for barium metal, nanoparticles and its compounds can vary widely depending on the form. For potential hazard information, toxicity, and road, sea and air transportation limitations, such as DOT Hazard Class, DOT Number, EU Number, NFPA Health rating and RTECS Class, please see the specific material or compound referenced in the left margin. Bariumcompounds have no biological role, but have been used in the past as a depilatory agent and a muscle stimulant. 

Ionization Energy. The ionization energy for barium (the least required energy to release a single electron from the atom in it‘s ground state in the gas phase) is stated in the following table:

1st Ionization Energy	502.86 kJ mol-1
2nd Ionization Energy	965.24 kJ mol-1
3rd Ionization Energy	- kJ mol-1

Conductivity. As to barium‘s electrical and thermal conductivity, the electrical conductivity measured as to electrical resistivity @ 20 ?C is 50 μΩcm and its electronegativities (or its ability to draw electrons relative to other elements) is 0.89. The thermal conductivity of barium is 18.4 W m-1 K-1. 

Thermal Properties. The melting point and boiling point for barium are stated below. The following chart sets forth the heat of fusion, heat of vaporization and heat of atomization.

Heat of Fusion	7.66 kJ mol-1
Heat of Vaporization	150.9 kJ mol-1
Heat of Atomization	180.7 kJ mol-1