Do noble gases have chemical properties?

Do noble gases have chemical properties?

Aug 26, 2022, 16:45 IST

Chemical properties of Noble gases:

• The noble gases are generally inert and do not participate in the chemical reactions easily.

• The inertness of noble gases is due to the following reasons.

i) The noble gases have completely filled electronic configurations (i.e., ns ² np ⁶ ) in their valence shells (except helium – ns ² ).

ii) The noble gases have exceptionally high ionization energies.

iii) The noble gases have very low electron affinities i.e., zero.

Entrancei Chemistry Doubts page consist of more questions for reference.

• Therefore, they have neither tendency to gain nor to lose any electron and do not enter in chemical combinations.

• Before 1962, it was thought that noble gases do not combine at all with other elements and hence, no serious attempts were made to synthesise their compounds.

• In 1962, N.Bartlett noticed that O ₂ reacts with platinum hexafluoride, PtF ₆ (powerful oxidizing agent) to form ionic compound, dioxygenyl hexafluoroplatinate (v), O ₂ ⁺ [PtF ₆ ] ^- .

O ₂ (g) + PtF ₆ (g) ® O ₂ ⁺ [PtF ₆ ] ^-

In this compound, O ₂ is oxidized to O ₂ ⁺ by PtF ₆ .

• Moreover, since, first ionization energy of X oxygen (1166 kJ mol ^-1 ) and Xenon (1170 KJ mol ^- ) are fairly comparable, he thought that an analogous reaction should be possible with Xenon (\ Molecular diameter of oxygen and atomic radius of Xe are similar (4Å)).

• On the basis of this assumptions, Bartlett tried the reaction between Xe and PtF ₆ by direct interaction and synthesized the first compound of noble gases Xe ⁺ [Pt F ₆ ] ^- in the form of red crystalline solid.

chemical properties of noble gas pdf