Barium carbonate 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 some claim that it can leach from glazes into food and drink. To provide a safe means of use, BaO is often used in fritted form. 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 Barium carbonate (BaCO), also known as witherite, is a chemical compound used in rat poison, bricks,
Period 5 element corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel. Because of its low toxicity, tin-plated metal is also used for food packaging, giving the name to tin cans, which are made mostly of steel. Antimony () is a toxic chemical element with the symbol Sb and an atomic number of 51. A lustrous grey metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (SbS). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were used for cosmetics, metallic antimony was also known but mostly identified as lead. For some time China has been the largest producer of antimony and its compounds,