Comment by nabla9
7 years ago
All noble gases exist as monoatomic elements.
They don't form compounds easily but there exist molecules containing at least xenon, radon. Even helium can be made to participate in reactions if pressure is high enough.
7 years ago
All noble gases exist as monoatomic elements.
They don't form compounds easily but there exist molecules containing at least xenon, radon. Even helium can be made to participate in reactions if pressure is high enough.
You only tend to get a noble gas reacting with something if you approach the arena of irresistible force (fluorine) meets unmovable object (xenon), and get Xenon Tetrafluoride. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_tetrafluoride
The noble gases have complete electron shells and are quite satisfied with themselves, not needing any bonds with anything else. However, the larger the atom, the more flexibility it has with how many electrons it can hide down the back of the sofa. Xenon is the largest non-radioactive noble gas, so it was the first to have a noble gas compound discovered. Fluorine is just desperate to acquire an electron to complete its electron shell, and will do it by whatever dirty tricks it can manage, which is why it is able to wrest one from Xenon's tight grasp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_gas_compound
This sort of thing (along with Derek Lowe's blog) makes chemistry interesting for me.
Derek's blog is absolutely incredible. For the uninitiated, I suggest to start with the "Things I Won't Work With" category:
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/thing...
FOOF!