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barium

Also known as Ba, element 56, 56Ba

Barium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element.

OverviewAI-generated

Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. Its standard chemical formula is Ba, and it has a mass of 137.327. The element exhibits an oxidation state of 2 and an electronegativity of 0.89. Its electron configuration is described as [Xe] 6s² or 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s² 4d¹⁰ 4p⁶ 5s² 5d¹⁰ 5p⁶ 6s².

The substance has a density of 3.338 and melts at 727 degrees Celsius. It boils at 1897 degrees Celsius. The molar fusion enthalpy is 7.12, and the ionization energy is 3600. The ionic radius measures 1.61. Barium was discovered in 1772 and again in 1808. It is referenced by 1,581 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 31 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubChem, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Chemical data

Formula: Ba
Molecular weight: 137.33 g/mol
IUPAC name: barium
SMILES: [Ba]
InChIKey: DSAJWYNOEDNPEQ-UHFFFAOYSA-N
Polar surface area: 0 Å²
H-bond donors: 0
H-bond acceptors: 0
Formal charge: 0

via PubChem

Research

35,614 papers

Barium aspiration.The American journal of the medical sciences · 2024Liu Q, Hu ZDOI: 10.1016/j.amjms.2024.01.023
A Fatal Case Report of Barium Chloride Toxicity.ReviewJournal of analytical toxicology · 2023Copeland CS, Rock KL, Pinhal A et al.DOI: 10.1093/jat/bkac102
Review on treatment and utilization of barium slag in China.ReviewJournal of environmental management · 2023Gu H, Yang Y, Guo T et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116461
Barium carbonate intoxication.Intensive care medicine · 1991Schorn TF, Olbricht C, Schüler A et al.DOI: 10.1007/BF01708412
How to effectively use and interpret the barium swallow: Current role in esophageal dysphagia.ReviewNeurogastroenterology and motility · 2023Sanagapalli S, Plumb A, Lord RV et al.DOI: 10.1111/nmo.14605
Clinical features and management strategies of acute soluble barium poisoning: a review of case reports.ReviewPostgraduate medicine · 2025Wu J, Liu ZDOI: 10.1080/00325481.2025.2511340
Barium swallows.Radiography · 1955GREENWAY R
A review of the health impacts of barium from natural and anthropogenic exposure.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2014Kravchenko J, Darrah TH, Miller RK et al.DOI: 10.1007/s10653-014-9622-7

via PubMed

~17 min read

Encyclopedic overview

18 sections

Contents

Characteristics
Physical properties
Chemical reactivity
Compounds
Isotopes
History
Occurrence and production
Gemstone
Barium in seawater
Applications
Metal and alloys
Barium sulfate and baryte
Other barium compounds
Palaeoceanography
Toxicity
See also
References
External links

The most common minerals of barium are barite (barium sulfate, BaSO4) and witherite (barium carbonate, BaCO3). The name barium originates from the alchemical derivative "baryta" from Greek (), meaning 'heavy'. Baric is the adjectival form of barium. Barium was identified as a new element in 1772, but not reduced to a metal until 1808 with the advent of electrolysis.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “barium” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.