Barium carbonate is a white solid precipitated from a solution of barium hydroxide and urea. The chemical formula for barium carbonate is BaCO3. It also occurs in minerals known as witherite and is also prepared from barytes through precipitation. It is toxic in nature.
Barium carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula BaCO3. Like most alkaline earth metal carbonates, it is a white salt that is poorly soluble in water. It occurs as the mineral known as witherite. In a commercial sense, it is one of the most important barium compounds.
Barium carbonate is made commercially from barium sulfide by treatment with sodium carbonate at 60 to 70 °C (soda ash method) or, more commonly carbon dioxide at 40 to 90 °C:
In the soda ash process, an aqueous solution of barium sulfide is treated with sodium carbonate:[5]
BaS + H2O + CO2 → BaCO3 + H2S
Barium carbonate reacts with acids such as hydrochloric acid to form soluble barium salts, such as barium chloride:
BaCO3 + 2 HCl → BaCl2 + CO2 + H2O
Pyrolysis of barium carbonate gives barium oxide.
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. To reduce toxicity concerns, it is often substituted with strontium carbonate, which behaves in a similar way in glazes but is of lower toxicity.
In the brick, tile, earthenware and pottery industries barium carbonate is added to clays to precipitate soluble salts (calcium sulfate and magnesium sulfate) that cause efflorescence.
Barium carbonate is a white powder. It is insoluble in water and soluble in most acids, with the exception of sulfuric acid. It has a specific gravity of 4.275. It is toxic by ingestion.
Barium carbonate is an inorganic carbonate salt of barium. It is an inorganic barium salt and a carbonate salt.
Barium carbonate is a chemical compound of barium. It is used in rat poison, bricks, ceramic glazes and cement. Barium is a metallic alkaline earth metal with the symbol Ba, and atomic number 56. It never occurs in nature in its pure form due to its reactivity with air, but combines with other chemicals such as sulfur or carbon and oxygen to form barium compounds that may be found as minerals.
Barium carbonate has the empirical formula CBaO3 and a molecular weight of 197.37. It is a tasteless, odorless, heavy white powder with a density of 4.2865. At about 1300°C it decomposes into BaO and CO2. Its vapor pressure is negligible. Barium carbonate is almost insoluble in water. It is slightly soluble (1:1000) in water saturated with carbon dioxide, soluble in dilute hydrochloric or nitric acid or in acetic acid, and soluble in solutions of ammonium chloride nitrate.
