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Barium, typically as barium nitrate imparts a yellow or "apple" green color to fireworks; [30] for brilliant green barium chloride is used. Barium peroxide is a catalyst in the aluminothermic reaction for welding rail tracks. It is also a green flare in tracer ammunition and a bleaching agent. [31]
As barium compounds emit a characteristic green light when heated at high temperature, barium salts are often used in green pyrotechnic formulas, although nitrate and chlorate salts are more common. Barium sulfate is commonly used as a component of "strobe" pyrotechnic compositions.
Barium sulfate suspension, often simply called barium, is a contrast agent used during X-rays. [1] Specifically it is used to improve visualization of the gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach, intestines) on plain X-ray or computed tomography . [ 2 ]
Barium chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula Ba Cl 2. It is one of the most common water-soluble salts of barium . Like most other water-soluble barium salts, it is a white powder, highly toxic, and imparts a yellow-green coloration to a flame.
Barium nitrate is manufactured by two processes that start with the main source material for barium, the carbonate. The first involves dissolving barium carbonate in nitric acid, allowing any iron impurities to precipitate, then filtered, evaporated, and crystallized. The second requires combining barium sulfide with nitric acid. [4]
Barium carbonate is widely used in the ceramics industry as an ingredient in glazes. It acts as a flux, a matting and crystallizing agent and combines with certain colouring oxides to produce unique colours not easily attainable by other means. Its use is somewhat controversial since it can leach from glazes into food and drink.
Barium hydroxide is used in analytical chemistry for the titration of weak acids, particularly organic acids. Its aqueous solution, if clear, is guaranteed to be free of carbonate, unlike those of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide , as barium carbonate is insoluble in water.
Barium is formed in large amounts by the fission process. A short-lived barium isotope was confused with radium by some early workers. They were bombarding uranium with neutrons in an attempt to form a new element. But instead they caused fission which generated a large amount of radioactivity in the target.