Answer to Question #13818 in Inorganic Chemistry for Celina

Question

We generally consider the noble gases as chemically inert because they have the maximum number of electrons possible in their outer shell. But they finally found a way to combine the noble gas Xenon with Fluorine, how did they do that?

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Answer 1

In 1933, Linus Pauling predicted that the heavier noble gases could form compounds with fluorine and oxygen. He predicted the existence of krypton hexafluoride (KrF₆) and xenon hexafluoride (XeF₆), speculated that XeF₈ might exist as an unstable compound, and suggested xenic acid could form perxenate salts. These predictions were shown to be generally accurate, except that XeF₈ is now thought to be both thermodynamically and kinetically unstable.Xenon compounds are the most numerous of the noble gas compounds that have been formed. Most of them have the xenon atom in the oxidation state of +2, +4, +6, or +8 bonded to highly electronegative atoms such as fluorine or oxygen, as in xenon difluoride (XeF₂), xenon tetrafluoride (XeF₄), xenon hexafluoride (XeF₆), xenon tetroxide (XeO₄), and sodium perxenate (Na₄XeO₆). Some of these compounds have found use in chemical synthesis as oxidizing agents; XeF₂, in particular, is commercially available and can be used as a fluorinating agent.As of 2007, about five hundred compounds of xenon bonded to other elements have been identified, including organoxenon compounds (containing xenon bonded to carbon), and xenon bonded to nitrogen, chlorine, gold, mercury, and xenon itself. Compounds of xenon bound to boron, hydrogen, bromine, iodine, beryllium, sulphur, titanium, copper, and silver have also been observed but only at low temperatures in noble gas matrices, or in supersonic noble gas jets.In theory, radon is more reactive than xenon, and therefore should form chemical bonds more easily than xenon does. However, due to the high radioactivity and short half-life of radon isotopes, only a few fluorides and oxides of radon have been formed in practice.