Barium green color. Barium sulfate is used as an insoluble additive to oil well drilling fluid, as well as in a purer form, as X-ray radiocontrast agents for imaging the human gastrointestinal tract. The soluble barium ion and soluble compounds are poisonous, and have been used as rodenticides. Barium is a soft, silvery-white metal, with a slight golden shade when ultrapure. The silvery-white color of barium metal rapidly vanishes upon oxidation in air yielding a dark gray oxide layer. Barium has a medium specific weight and good electrical conductivity. Ultrapure barium is very difficult to prepare, and therefore many properties of
Sodium chlorate The Chloralkali process is an industrial process for the electrolytic production of sodium hydroxide and chlorine. It can also be synthesized by passing chlorine gas through a solution of sodium hydroxide. It is then purified by crystallization. The main commercial use for sodium chlorate is for making chlorine dioxide (ClO). The largest application of ClO, which accounts for about 95% of the use of chlorate, is in bleaching of pulp. All perchlorate compounds are produced industrially by the oxidation of solutions of sodium chlorate by electrolysis. Sodium chlorate is used as a non-selective herbicide. It is considered phytotoxic to all