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18.5: Compounds of Argon, Krypton, and Radon

  • Page ID
    34325
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    It was initially believed that the noble gases could not form compounds due to their full valence shell of electrons that rendered them very chemically stable and unreactive. All noble gases have full s and p outer electron shells (except helium, which has no p sublevel), and so do not form chemical compounds easily. Because of their high ionization energy and almost zero electron affinity, they were not expected to be reactive.

    The heavier noble gases have more electron shells than the lighter ones. Hence, the outermost electrons experience a shielding effect from the inner electrons that makes them more easily ionized, since they are less strongly attracted to the positively charged nucleus. This results in an ionization energy low enough to form stable compounds with the most electronegative elements, fluorine and oxygen, and even with less electronegative elements such as nitrogen and carbon under certain circumstances. These compounds are listed in order of decreasing order of the atomic weight of the noble gas, which generally reflects the priority of their discovery, and the breadth of available information for these compounds.

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    18.5: Compounds of Argon, Krypton, and Radon is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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