Question & Answer » Chemistry Questions » What is the Atomic Mass of Barium

What is the Atomic Mass of Barium

What is the atomic mass of Barium? Find the answer to this question and access a vast question bank customised for students.

Answer: Barium is a highly explosive alkaline earth metal with a different chemical reaction than calcium. It has a very wide range of melting and boiling points. At room temperature, it appears like a solid. The atomic mass of Barium is 137.327 u. The chemical element barium has the symbol Ba and the atomic number 56. This soft, silvery alkaline earth metal has been the sixth member of group 2. Barium has never been discovered as just a free element within nature due to its extreme chemical reactivity. There are few industrial uses for Barium. It was once used as a getter in vacuum tubes and as an emissive layer over an indirectly heated cathode side in an oxidised state. It’s found in high-temperature superconductors, while electroceramics minimise the size of carbon grains throughout steel and cast iron nanostructures. 

The green colour is accomplished by combining barium compounds into fireworks. In oil well drilling fluid, barium sulphate is an insoluble addition. It’s utilised as an X-ray radiocontrast agent in imaging the human gastrointestinal tract in either a purer form. Barium compounds that dissolve in water are harmful and have also been utilised as rodenticides. Including an atomic number of 56, Barium belongs to the alkaline earth metal family. Barium has the electronic structure [Xe]6s². While heated under a flame, Barium produces grassy green to green flames that assist with the qualitative element method.