Glossary
Allotropes
Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes. Each allotrope has different physical properties.
For more information on the Visual Elements image see the Uses and properties section below.
| Discovery date | 1808 |
| Discovered by | Humphry Davy |
| Origin of the name | The name comes from the Greek 'barys', meaning heavy. |
| Allotropes |
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Glossary
Group
A vertical column in the periodic table. Members of a group typically have similar properties and electron configurations in their outer shell.
Period
A horizontal row in the periodic table. The atomic number of each element increases by one, reading from left to right.
Block
Elements are organised into blocks by the orbital type in which the outer electrons are found. These blocks are named for the characteristic spectra they produce: sharp (s), principal (p), diffuse (d), and fundamental (f).
Atomic number
The number of protons in an atom.
Electron configuration
The arrangements of electrons above the last (closed shell) noble gas.
Melting point
The temperature at which the solid–liquid phase change occurs.
Boiling point
The temperature at which the liquid–gas phase change occurs.
Sublimation
The transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through a liquid phase.
Density (g cm−3)
Density is the mass of a substance that would fill 1 cm3 at room temperature.
Relative atomic mass
The mass of an atom relative to that of carbon-12. This is approximately the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Where more than one isotope exists, the value given is the abundance weighted average.
Isotopes
Atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons.
CAS number
The Chemical Abstracts Service registry number is a unique identifier of a particular chemical, designed to prevent confusion arising from different languages and naming systems.
| Group | 2 | Melting point | 727°C, 1341°F, 1000 K |
| Period | 6 | Boiling point | 1845°C, 3353°F, 2118 K |
| Block | s | Density (g cm−3) | 3.62 |
| Atomic number | 56 | Relative atomic mass | 137.327 |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 138Ba |
| Electron configuration | [Xe] 6s2 | CAS number | 7440-39-3 |
| ChemSpider ID | 4511436 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Glossary
Image explanation
Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements. This is where the artist explains his interpretation of the element and the science behind the picture.
Appearance
The description of the element in its natural form.
Biological role
The role of the element in humans, animals and plants.
Natural abundance
Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially.
History
History
Atomic radius, non-bonded
Half of the distance between two unbonded atoms of the same element when the electrostatic forces are balanced. These values were determined using several different methods.
Covalent radius
Half of the distance between two atoms within a single covalent bond. Values are given for typical oxidation number and coordination.
Electron affinity
The energy released when an electron is added to the neutral atom and a negative ion is formed.
Electronegativity (Pauling scale)
The tendency of an atom to attract electrons towards itself, expressed on a relative scale.
First ionisation energy
The minimum energy required to remove an electron from a neutral atom in its ground state.
Glossary
Common oxidation states
The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom. It is defined as being the charge that an atom would have if all bonds were ionic. Uncombined elements have an oxidation state of 0. The sum of the oxidation states within a compound or ion must equal the overall charge.
Isotopes
Atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons.
Key for isotopes
| Half life | ||
|---|---|---|
| y | years | |
| d | days | |
| h | hours | |
| m | minutes | |
| s | seconds | |
| Mode of decay | ||
| α | alpha particle emission | |
| β | negative beta (electron) emission | |
| β+ | positron emission | |
| EC | orbital electron capture | |
| sf | spontaneous fission | |
| ββ | double beta emission | |
| ECEC | double orbital electron capture | |
| Common oxidation states | 2 | ||||
| Isotopes | Isotope | Atomic mass | Natural abundance (%) | Half life | Mode of decay |
| 130Ba | 129.906 | 0.106 | 2.2 x 1021 y | β+β+ | |
| 132Ba | 131.905 | 0.101 | 1.3 x 1021 y | EC EC | |
| 134Ba | 133.905 | 2.417 | - | - | |
| 135Ba | 134.906 | 6.592 | - | - | |
| 136Ba | 135.905 | 7.854 | - | - | |
| 137Ba | 136.906 | 11.232 | - | - | |
| 138Ba | 137.905 | 71.698 | - | - | |
Glossary
Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey.
Relative supply risk
An integrated supply risk index from 1 (very low risk) to 10 (very high risk). This is calculated by combining the scores for crustal abundance, reserve distribution, production concentration, substitutability, recycling rate and political stability scores.
Crustal abundance (ppm)
The number of atoms of the element per 1 million atoms of the Earth’s crust.
Recycling rate
The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. A higher recycling rate may reduce risk to supply.
Substitutability
The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity.
High = substitution not possible or very difficult.
Medium = substitution is possible but there may be an economic and/or performance impact
Low = substitution is possible with little or no economic and/or performance impact
Production concentration
The percentage of an element produced in the top producing country. The higher the value, the larger risk there is to supply.
Reserve distribution
The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves. The higher the value, the larger risk there is to supply.
Political stability of top producer
A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators.
Political stability of top reserve holder
A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators.
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Glossary
Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1)
Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy needed to change the temperature of a kilogram of a substance by 1 K.
Young's modulus
A measure of the stiffness of a substance. It provides a measure of how difficult it is to extend a material, with a value given by the ratio of tensile strength to tensile strain.
Shear modulus
A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. It is given by the ratio of the shear stress to the shear strain.
Bulk modulus
A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. It is given by the ratio of the pressure on a body to the fractional decrease in volume.
Vapour pressure
A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. It is defined as the equilibrium pressure exerted by the gas produced above a substance in a closed system.
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Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1) |
204 | Young's modulus (GPa) | Unknown | |||||||||||
| Shear modulus (GPa) | Unknown | Bulk modulus (GPa) | Unknown | |||||||||||
| Vapour pressure | ||||||||||||||
| Temperature (K) |
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| Pressure (Pa) |
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Podcasts
Podcasts
| Listen to Barium Podcast |
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Transcript :
Chemistry in its element: barium (Promo) You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. (End promo) Chris Smith Hello, this week rat poison, fireworks, fine glass, oil exploration and enemas. Spotted the link yet, well the answer is sitting in the apple green element at the bottom of group two. Adina Payton For many, barium has an unpleasant association. The first thing most people think about when this element is mentioned is the "barium enema" or "barium swallow". Sickly memories often surface of the radiology clinic - where they even ask which flavor you would like strawberry or banana... These "cocktails" consist of a white fluid of barium sulfate that is either "squirted" up one orifice or swallowed down another. It is used to help diagnose diseases and other problems that affect the large intestine or the esophagus. The heavy barium blocks X-rays, causing the filled part of the digestive system to show up clearly on the X-ray picture or CT scan. Barium sulfate can be taken into our body because it is highly insoluble in water, and is eliminated completely from the digestive tract. And if this sounds like an unpleasant experience, it's lucky that it's barium sulfate and not just barium that is used for the exam. Barium is a highly toxic metal. It's extremely poisonous - no one in their right mind would consider consuming it. At low doses, it acts as a muscle stimulant, while higher doses play havoc with the nervous system, causing an irregular heartbeat, tremor, weakness, anxiety, paralysis, and potentially death as the heart and lungs fail. Acute doses of less than 1 gram can be fatal to humans. Indeed barium carbonate is useful as rat poison. Unlike barium sulfate, barium carbonate dissolves in stomach acid, releasing the poisonous barium to do its rather nasty but efficient work. Conveniently barium, which is a soft silvery metallic alkaline earth metal, is never found in nature in its pure form, due to its reactivity with air or in water. In fact the metal is a "getter" in vacuum tubes, meaning it's used to remove the last traces of oxygen. Barium compounds are notable for their high specific gravity - which, in practical terms, means the compounds are extremely heavy. This is true of the most common barium-bearing mineral, its sulfate - barite BaSO4 - is called 'heavy spar' due to the high density (4.5 g/cm³ - the size of a pea). Indeed the name barium comes from the Greek barys, meaning "heavy". Due to its density barium compounds, and especially barite (BaSO4), are extremely important to the petroleum industry. Barite is used in drilling mud, a weighting agent in drilling new oil wells. Barium carbonate also has an application that is more appealing than rat poison - it's used in glassmaking to enhance the luster of the glass. And barite is used in paints, bricks, tiles, glass and rubber production; barium nitrate and chlorate give green colors to fireworks and barium titanate was proposed in 2007 to be used in next generation battery technology for electric cars. Despite the relative high abundance of barium sulfate in nature - it's the 14th most abundant element in earths crust - due to its multiple uses it has a high value, in the range of $55/100grams. Total annual world production is estimated at around 6,000,000 tons. And the main mining areas are the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic, USA and Germany. Total world reserves are estimated to be around 450,000,000 tons. And why am I so particularly interested in this heavy, poisonous element? Well, as a scientist I actually study barite - I separate barite from marine sediments - the mud at the bottom of the sea - and analyze its chemistry which tells us fabulous stories about seawater chemistry and productivity in the geological past. Barite forms in proportion to ocean productivity - the activity of marine phytoplankton the floating "trees" of the ocean which are the base of the marine food chain - and accumulates in marine sediments. The accumulation of barite in ocean sediments can tell us how productive the ocean was at any given time in Earth's history. Barite in contrast to many other minerals is not soluble and is preserved over many millions of years recording the chemistry of the ocean and how it changed over time. And therefore it's a great archive of ocean history. Chris Smith Chemist Adina Payton telling the tale of barium. And talking of what sits at the bottom of the oceans. Steve Mylon "How did it smell?" That was the only question I needed to ask a geologist colleague of mine about the sediment she was trying to understand. The smell of the sediment tells a great deal about the underlying chemistry. Thick black anoxic sediments can be accompanied by a putrid smell which is unique to reduced sulfur. Maybe this is why sulfur has such a bad reputation. My son wouldn't eat eggs for 6 months when he got a smell of his first rotten one. Chris Smith That's the stinky story of sulfur with Steve Mylon on next week's Chemistry in its element, I hope you can join us. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening and goodbye. (Promo) Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists.com. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.org/elements. (End promo)
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Video
Video
Resources
Resources
Terms & Conditions
Images © Murray Robertson 1999-2011
Text © The Royal Society of Chemistry 1999-2011
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© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
Data
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
Uses and properties
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Supply risk data
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
History text
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Podcasts
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Periodic Table of Videos
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
