As a strategic emerging industry mineral, barite is mainly composed of barium sulfate (BaSO4). It has high density, strong chemical stability, and non-toxic, harmless characteristics. So they shown broad application prospects in many fields.
Application fields of barite powder (BaSO4)
Drilling mud weighting agent
Barite is the most common raw material for drilling mud weighting agents in the world. At present, in oil well production or oil and gas mixed well production worldwide, barite irreplaceable. People consumes about 78% of barite sales by drilling activities in the oil and gas industry. Barite can increase mud density, form sufficient liquid column pressure, balance formation pressure, prevent blowout accidents, and cool the drill bit, lubricate the drill pipe, seal the hole wall, and carry away the cut debris.
Barium chemical products
Barium salts are inorganic chemical basic materials, and barium salts of different specifications have different uses.
First, it is the main source for manufacturing various barium chemical products. It can be used to manufacture chemical raw materials such as barium oxide, barium carbonate, barium chloride, barium nitrate, precipitated barium sulfate, barium hydroxide, and zinc barium white.
Second, barium carbonate can be used in the production of ceramics and ceramic glazes, functional glass, magnetic materials, electronic components, and other barium salt products.
Third, barium sulfate can be used in paints, coatings, plastics, batteries, smelting and other fields, among which modified barium sulfate can be used in agricultural mulch, greenhouse protective film, wrapping film and other industries.
High-purity barium carbonate can be used in the liquid crystal and optical glass substrate industries. Barium nitrate can be used to manufacture optical glass, LCD screens, and high-end electronics industries. It is also used as an oxidant, analytical reagent, as well as in flares, fireworks, ceramic glazes, and medicines. Zinc barium white, also known as lithopone, is a commonly used high-quality white pigment. It is a mixture of barium sulfate (70%) and zinc sulfide (30%). Precipitated barium sulfate is mainly used in medicine, medium and high-end coatings and inks, plastics, rubber, glass, ceramics and other fields. Medicinal barium sulfate is mainly used in the field of medical imaging.
Functional fillers
1 Rubber and plastic fillers
Adding barium sulfate to rubber and plastic products can increase wear resistance, tensile strength, hardness, and aging resistance while reducing costs. Adding it to paints and coatings can increase the thickness, strength, durability, and stability of the paint film and even give the coatings certain functionality.
2 Papermaking fillers
In the papermaking industry, high-fineness barite powder can be used as fillers and coating fillers for white paper and coated paper to improve whiteness and surface coverage.
3 Conductive coatings
Introducing modified SnO2 or Sb2O3 as a wrapping layer to coat barite, and using it as a light-colored conductive coating. Such conductive coatings have low resistivity. People use them in military, medical, and electronic products to reduce electromagnetic interference and provide anti-static effects.
Radiation protection materials
Because barite can effectively absorb X-rays and gamma rays. People often use it in medical protective clothing as material for isolation layers and outer protective layers.
The barite concrete developed by She Ziying and others, using barite as an important aggregate. It can increase the apparent density and compactness of concrete while providing good shielding capability against X-rays and gamma rays.
In the construction industry, high-density concrete structures incorporating barite as a key aggregate possess special radiation protection properties. Its radiation attenuation ability increasing proportionally with barite concentration. Therefore, we use it to shield against radiation hazards from medical equipment in hospitals, nuclear power plants, research institution laboratories, and other facilities.
Liu Jinwei and others proposed using barite to produce nano barium sulfate. When adding it to viscose spinning solution creates a new composite film for medical anti-X-ray clothing. This material demonstrates 44% higher X-ray absorption capability compared to pure viscose film.
Magnetic materials
Beyond modified barite’s wide material applications, barite frequently serves as a barium source for synthesizing barium ferrite materials.
Barium ferrite magnetic material (BaFe₁₂O₁₉) was China’s earliest industrial permanent magnet product. With excellent magnetic, optical and electromagnetic properties, it finds applications in 5G technology, sensors, stealth technology, optical fiber, recording media, permanent magnets, and biomedicine. Additionally, barium ferrite magnetic materials show potential as photocatalysts for water and air purification.
Through nanotechnology, barium ferrite magnetic materials can form hexaferrite barium nanosheets. We can use it for biomedical applications including drug delivery and antibacterial activity.
Electromagnetic wave shielding materials
Barite-derived nano-modified barium sulfate serves as the primary material in stealth coatings. It can absorb and shield electromagnetic waves for military stealth applications.
Cement mineralizer
In cement production, barite addition significantly promotes C3S formation and activation while improving clinker quality. It increases early cement strength by 20-25% and later strength by about 10%. This is when reducing clinker sintering temperature from 1450°C to 1300°C±50°C.
Adding appropriate barite to coal gangue-based cement raw materials dramatically enhances strength, particularly early strength, in low clinker saturation ratio cement. This provides an effective approach for comprehensive coal gangue utilization and production of low-calcium, energy-saving, early-strength, high-strength cement.
Glass flux and clarifier
In glass manufacturing, barium sulfate serves as both flux and clarifier. Its sulfur trioxide (SO₃) demonstrates high solubility in glass at low temperatures that decreases at high temperatures, decomposing to release sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and oxygen (O₂). This creates stirring and clarifying effects that improve glass melting uniformity, reduce bubbles and other defects, enhance optical properties, and increase chemical stability.
For optical glass and decorative glass requiring specific optical properties, it improves visual effects and optical quality while extending product lifespan.
Contrast agent
Barium sulfate serves as a common clinical X-ray contrast agent for digestive tract visualization. Surface modification technology addresses traditional products’ fast precipitation and blurred imaging issues. When combined with nanoparticles and traditional Chinese medicine, it offers diverse application forms and development potential.
Lithium-ion battery additives
Nano-scale barite as a lithium-ion battery anode material dopant enhances electrode plate activity, prevents hardening, and increases battery cycle life by approximately 20%.
Sewage treatment agent
Modified barite becomes more suitable for environmental applications like wastewater treatment and pollutant adsorption. For instance, barite’s long-term chromium absorption occurs through epitaxial overgrowth of Ba(CrO₄,SO₄) solid solution with barite structure. Ba(CrO₄,SO₄) precipitation on barite significantly reduces toxic chromate concentrations, improving water environment quality.
Conclusion
Although China possesses abundant barite resources, the industry has long focused on exporting primary raw materials, suffering from extensive mining practices and low-value development that threaten resource security.
With technological advancement, the barite industry is evolving toward high purification, ultra-fineness, and high-performance composites. Recent developments in nanomaterials and filled gel materials have significantly enhanced barite’s utilization value. Future efforts should emphasize deep processing improvement, strategic emerging industry development, and application expansion to establish an intensive, efficient, and green barite industry development mechanism in China.
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