1s² 2s²p⁶ 3s²p⁶d¹⁰ 4s²p⁶d¹⁰ 5s²p⁶

Applications Compounds Isotopes

Precautions Xenon Data Interactive Periodic Table

Applications

This gas is most widely and most famously used in light-emitting devices called Xenon flash lamps, which are used in photographic flashes and stroboscopic lamps, to excite the active medium in lasers which then generate coherent light, to produce laser power for inertial confinement fusion, in bactericidal lamps (rarely), and in certain dermatological uses. Continuous, short-arc, high pressure Xenon arc lamps have a color temperature closely approximating noon sunlight and are used in solar simulators, some projection systems, automotive HID headlights and other specialized uses. They are an excellent source of short wavelength ultraviolet radiation and they have intense emissions in the near infrared, which are used in some night vision systems. Other uses of Xenon:

• Has been used as a general anaesthetic, though it is expensive.  Even so, anesthesia machines that can deliver Xenon are about to appear on the European market.
• In nuclear energy applications it is used in bubble chambers, probes, and in other areas where a high molecular weight and inert nature is a desirable quality.
• Perxenates are used as oxidizing agents in Analytical Chemistry. 
• The isotope ¹³³Xe is useful as a radioisotope. 
• Hyperpolarized MRI of the lungs and other tissues using ¹²⁹Xe.
• Preferred fuel for Ion propulsion because of high molecular weight, ease of ionization, store as a liquid at near room temperature (but at high pressure) yet easily converts back into a gas to fuel the engine, inert nature makes it environmentally friendly and less corrosive to an ion engine than other fuels such as mercury or cesium.  Europe's SMART-1 spacecraft utilized Xenon in its engines.
• Is commonly used in protein crystallography. Applied at high pressure (~600 psi) to a protein crystal, xenon atoms bind in predominantly hydrophobic cavities, often creating a high quality, isomorphous, heavy-atom derivative.

Compounds

Xenon and the other noble gases had for a long time been considered to be completely chemically inert and not able to form compounds.  However, in 1962 at the University of British Columbia, the first xenon compound, Xenon Hexafluoroplatinate, was synthesized by Neil Bartlett.  Now, many compounds of xenon are known, including xenon difluoride, xenon tetrafluoride, xenon hexafluoride, xenon tetroxide, xenon hydrate, xenon deuterate, and sodium perxenate.  A highly explosive compound xenon trioxide has also been made.  There are at least 80 xenon compounds in which fluorine or oxygen is bonded to xenon. Some compounds of xenon are colored but most are colorless.

Recently at the University of Helsinki in Finland, a group of scientists (M. Räsänen et al.) prepared HXeH, HXeOH, and HXeCCH (xenon dihydride, xenon hydride-hydroxide, and hydroxenoacetylene).  They are stable up to 40^oK.

Isotopes

Naturally occurring xenon is made of eight stable and two slightly radioactive isotopes.  Beyond these stable forms, there are 30 unstable isotopes that have been studied. ¹²⁹Xe is produced by beta decay of ¹²⁹I (half-life: 16 million years); ^131mXe, ¹³³Xe, ^133mXe, and ¹³⁵Xe are some of the fission products of both ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu, and therefore used as indicators of nuclear explosions.

The artificial isotope ¹³⁵Xe is of considerable significance in the operation of nuclear fission reactors.  ¹³⁵Xe has a huge cross section for thermal neutrons, 2.65x10⁶ barns, so it acts as a neutron absorber or "poison" that can slow or stop the chain reaction after a period of operation.  This was discovered in the earliest nuclear reactors built by the American Manhattan Project for plutonium production.  Fortunately the designers had made provisions in the design to increase the reactor's reactivity (the number of neutrons per fission that go on to fission other atoms of nuclear fuel).

Relatively high concentrations of radioactive xenon isotopes are also found emanating from nuclear reactors due to the release of this fission gas from cracked fuel rods or fissioning of uranium in cooling water. The concentrations of these isotopes are still usually low compared to naturally occurring radioactive noble gases such as ²²²Rn.

Because xenon is a tracer for two parent isotopes, Xe isotope ratios in meteorites are a powerful tool for studying the formation of the solar system.  The I-Xe method of dating gives the time elapsed between nucleosynthesis and the condensation of a solid object from the solar nebula.  Xenon isotopes are also a powerful tool for understanding terrestrial differentiation. Excess ¹²⁹Xe found in carbon dioxide well gases from New Mexico was believed to be from the decay of mantle-derived gases soon after Earth's formation.

Precautions

The gas can be safely kept in normal sealed glass containers at standard temperature and pressure.  Xenon is non-toxic, but many of its compounds are toxic due to their strong oxidative properties.

The speed of sound in xenon is slower than that in air (due to the slower average speed of the heavy xenon atoms compared to nitrogen and oxygen molecules), so xenon lowers the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract when inhaled.  This produces a characteristic lowered voice pitch, opposite the high-pitched voice caused by inhalation of helium.   Like helium, xenon does not satisfy the body's need for oxygen and is a simple asphyxiant; consequently, many universities no longer allow the voice stunt as a general chemistry demonstration. As xenon is expensive, the gas sulfur hexafluoride, which is similar to xenon in molecular weight (146 vs 131), is generally used in this stunt, although it too is an asphyxiant.

A myth exists that xenon is too heavy for the lungs to expel unassisted, and that after inhaling xenon, it is necessary to bend over completely at the waist to allow the excess gas to "spill" out of the body.  In fact, the lungs mix gases very effectively and rapidly, such that xenon would be purged from the lungs within a breath or two. There is, however, a danger associated with any heavy gas in large quantities: it may sit invisibly in a container, and if a person enters a container filled with an odorless, colorless gas, they may find themselves breathing it unknowingly. Xenon is rarely used in large enough quantities for this to be a concern, though the potential for danger exists any time a tank or container of xenon is kept in an unventilated space.

(Gr. xenon, stranger) Discovered by Ramsay and Travers in 1898 in the residue left after evaporating liquid air components. Xenon is a member of the so-called noble or "inert" gases.  It is present in the atmosphere to the extent of about one part in twenty million.  Xenon is present in the Martian atmosphere to the extent of 0.08 ppm. the element is found in the gases evolved from certain mineral springs, and is commercially obtained by extraction from liquid air.  Natural xenon is composed of eight stable isotopes.  In addition to these, 30 unstable isotopes have been characterized.  Before 1962, it had generally been assumed that xenon and other noble gases were unable to form compounds.  Evidence has been mounting in the past few years that xenon, as well as other members of zero valance elements, do form compounds.  Among the "compounds" of xenon now reported are sodium perxenate, xenon deuterate, xenon hydrate, difluoride, tetrafluoride, and hexafluoride.   Xenon trioxide, which is highly explosive, has been prepared.  More than 80 xenon compounds have been made with xenon chemically bonded to fluorine and oxygen.   Some xenon compounds are colored. Metallic xenon has been produced, using several hundred kilobars of pressure.  Xenon in a vacuum tube produces a beautiful blue glow when excited by an electrical discharge.  The gas is used in making electron tubes, stoboscopic lamps, bactericidal lamps, and lamps used to excite ruby lasers for generating coherent light.  Xenon is used in the nuclear energy field in bubble chambers, probes, and other applications where a high molecular weight is of value.  The perxenates are used in analytical chemistry as oxidizing agents. ¹³³Xe and ¹³⁵Xe are produced by neutron irradiation in air cooled nuclear reactors.  ¹³³Xe has useful applications as a radioisotope.  The element is available in sealed glass containers of gas at standard pressure.  Xenon is not toxic, but its compounds are highly toxic because of their strong oxidizing characteristics.

Source: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 1913-1995. David R. Lide, Editor in Chief. Author: C.R. Hammond