Brianna De Jong

Chemistry

January 4, 2011

Xenon

Xenon, or represented with the symbol Xe, is a chemical element on the periodic table. Sir

William Ramsay and M. W. Travers are credited with discovering this gas in 1898 in England and also

credited with the discovery of Krypton and Neon. Xenon’s origin comes from the Greek word xenos,

meaning strange. This gas can serve many purposes and is used in everyday scientific labs and hospitals.

Xenon is a heavy, colorless, and odorless gas with atomic weight 131.29g/mol and atomic

number 54. Xenon belongs in the noble gas group, or group 18, period 5, and block p. Normally noble

gases do not react with other gases, but Xenon is an exception. Xenon by itself is not toxic and colorless,

but compounds that can be made are colored and highly toxic because of their strong oxidizing

characteristics. Its electron configuration is [Kr] 5s2 4d10 5p6.

The use of Xenon can be expensive to remove from Earth’s atmosphere but very useful.

For example, it has been used as a general anaesthetic, neuroprotectant, and imaging to

measure blood flow. Xenon is also used for illumination such as gas-discharge lamps and lasers.

This noble gas is quite out of the ordinary for the characteristics in the group it belongs but is

highly useful.