xenons

Xenon is a chemical element with symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a colorless, dense, monatomic noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in Earth’s atmosphere. Xenon is highly nonreactive under standard conditions, though it forms a small number of compounds with fluorine and oxygen, typically under energetic conditions.

Discovered in 1898 by Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers, xenon was named from the Greek xenos, meaning stranger. It is extracted from air by fractional distillation of liquid air.

Chemistry: Xenon forms several compounds, notably xenon difluoride (XeF2), xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4), and xenon hexafluoride (XeF6), as well as xenon trioxide (XeO3). Many xenon compounds are powerful oxidizers and fluorinating agents. Xenon also appears in various xenon-containing salts, complexes, and clathrates in specialized chemistry.

Applications: In lighting, xenon is used in xenon arc lamps and flash lamps for bright white light. In medicine, it is used as an anesthetic in certain procedures and studied as an imaging contrast agent. In space technology, xenon is the common propellant for electric propulsion systems such as ion thrusters. Liquid xenon serves as a scintillator in radiation detectors used in nuclear medicine, homeland security, and particle physics, including dark matter experiments.

Safety: Xenon is inert and non-toxic at typical exposure levels, but asphyxiation risk exists in confined spaces; handling requires proper ventilation and, for cryogenic forms, suitable safety protocols.