Chemistry: Not So Noble Anymore

Noble Gases.

The noble gases, including helium, neon, and xenon, do not normally form compounds with other chemicals. Their atoms have enough electrons not to require sharing with or borrowing from other atoms.

Making Compounds from Noble Gases.

In 1962 the American chemist Neil Bartlett was working in Canada when the idea struck him that it was possible to make compounds from noble gases. He knew that, in the complex chemical oxygen-platinum-hexaflouride, oxygen acts as if it has a positive charge (O2+) and the platinum and fluoride combine and act negatively charged (PtF6-). Bartlett knew it took a lot of energy to remove an (negatively charged) electron from oxygen and make it act positively charged, about the same amount of energy required to remove an electron from xenon. But PtF6- was the best oxidizer (electron remover) known.

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