Ba Barium – Element Information, Facts, Properties, Trends,Uses, Comparison with other elements

Barium History

The element Barium was discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in year 1808 in United Kingdom . Barium derived its name from the Greek barys, meaning 'heavy'

Barium Presence: Abundance in Nature and Around Us

The table below shows the abundance of Barium in Universe, Sun, Meteorites, Earth's Crust, Oceans and Human Body.

Crystal Structure of Barium

The solid state structure of Barium is Body Centered Cubic.

The Crystal structure can be described in terms of its unit Cell. The unit Cells repeats itself in three dimensional space to form the structure.

Unit Cell Parameters

The unit cell is represented in terms of its lattice parameters, which are the lengths of the cell edges Lattice Constants (a, b and c)

and the angles between them Lattice Angles (alpha, beta and gamma).

The positions of the atoms inside the unit cell are described by the set of atomic positions ( x_i, y_i, z_i) measured from a reference lattice point.

The symmetry properties of the crystal are described by the concept of space groups. All possible symmetric arrangements of particles in three-dimensional space are described by the 230 space groups (219 distinct types, or 230 if chiral copies are considered distinct.

Space Group Name	Im_ 3m
Space Group Number	229
Crystal Structure	Body Centered Cubic

Barium Atomic and Orbital Properties

Barium atoms have 56 electrons and the electronic shell structure is [2, 8, 18, 18, 8, 2] with Atomic Term Symbol (Quantum Numbers) ¹S₀.

Atomic Number	56
Number of Electrons (with no charge)	56
Number of Protons	56
Mass Number	137
Number of Neutrons	81
Shell structure (Electrons per energy level)	[2, 8, 18, 18, 8, 2]
Electron Configuration	[Xe] 6s2
Valence Electrons	6s2
Oxidation State	1;2
Atomic Term Symbol (Quantum Numbers)	1S0

Shell Structure of Barium - Electrons per energy level

n		s	p	d	f
1	K	2
2	L	2	6
3	M	2	6	10
4	N	2	6	10
5	O	2	6
6	P	2

Ground State Electronic Configuration of Barium - neutral Barium atom

The ground state electronic configuration of Neutral Barium atom is [Xe] 6s2. The portion of Barium configuration that is equivalent to the noble gas of the preceding period, is abbreviated as [Xe]. For atoms with many electrons, this notation can become lengthy and so an abbreviated notation is used.This is important as it is the Valence electrons 6s2, electrons in the outermost shell that determine the chemical properties of the element.

Unabbreviated electronic configuration of neutral Barium

Complete ground state electronic configuration for the Barium atom, Unabbreviated electronic configuration

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 5s2 5p6 6s2

Atomic Structure of Barium

Barium atomic radius is 253 pm, while it's covalent radius is 198 pm.

Atomic Spectrum of Barium

Barium Chemical Properties: Barium Ionization Energies and electron affinity

The electron affinity of Barium is 13.95 kJ/mol

Ionization Energy of Barium

Refer to table below for Ionization energies of Barium

Barium Physical Properties

Refer to below table for Barium Physical Properties

Elastic Properties

Hardness of Barium - Tests to Measure of Hardness of Element

Barium Electrical Properties

Barium is Conductor of electricity. Refer to table below for the Electrical properties of Barium

Barium Heat and Conduction Properties

Barium Magnetic Properties

Optical Properties of Barium

Acoustic Properties of Barium

Barium Thermal Properties - Enthalpies and thermodynamics

Refer to table below for Thermal properties of Barium

Enthalpies of Barium

Barium Isotopes - Nuclear Properties of Barium

Isotopes of rhodium. Naturally occurring Barium has 7 stable isotope - 130Ba, 132Ba, 134Ba, 135Ba, 136Ba, 137Ba, 138Ba.

Regulatory and Health - Health and Safety Parameters and Guidelines

Database Search

List of unique identifiers to search the element in various chemical registry databases