Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54.

It is a dense,
colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts.[11]
Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the
formation of xenon hexafluoroplatinate, the first noble gas compound to be
synthesized.[12][13][14]

Xenon is used in flash lamps[15] and arc lamps,[16] and as a general anesthetic.
[17] The first excimer laser design used a xenon dimer molecule (Xe2) as the lasing
medium,[18] and the earliest laser designs used xenon flash lamps as pumps.[19]
Xenon is also used to search for hypothetical weakly interacting massive
particles[20] and as a propellant for ion thrusters in spacecraft.[21]

Naturally occurring xenon consists of seven stable isotopes and two long-lived
radioactive isotopes. More than 40 unstable xenon isotopes undergo radioactive
decay, and the isotope ratios of xenon are an important tool for studying the early
history of the Solar System.[22] Radioactive xenon-135 is produced by beta decay
from iodine-135 (a product of nuclear fission), and is the most significant (and
unwanted) neutron absorber in nuclear reactors.[23]

Contents
1 History
2 Characteristics
3 Occurrence and production
3.1 Commercial
3.2 Solar system
3.3 Stellar
3.4 Nuclear fission
4 Isotopes
4.1 Nuclear spin
4.2 From fission
4.3 Cosmic processes
5 Compounds
5.1 Halides
5.2 Oxides and oxohalides
5.3 Other compounds
5.4 Clathrates and excimers
6 Applications
6.1 Illumination and optics
6.1.1 Gas-discharge lamps
6.1.2 Lasers
6.2 Medical
6.2.1 Anesthesia
6.2.2 Neuroprotectant
6.2.3 Sports doping
6.2.4 Imaging
6.2.5 Surgery
6.3 NMR spectroscopy
6.4 Other
7 Precautions
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
History
Xenon was discovered in England by the Scottish chemist William Ramsay and English
chemist Morris Travers in September 1898,[24] shortly after their discovery of the
elements krypton and neon. They found xenon in the residue left over from
evaporating components of liquid air.[25][26] Ramsay suggested the name xenon for
this gas from the Greek word ξένον xénon, neuter singular form of ξένος xénos,
meaning 'foreign(er)', 'strange(r)', or 'guest'.[27][28] In 1902, Ramsay estimated
the proportion of xenon in the Earth's atmosphere to be one part in 20 million.[29]

During the 1930s, American engineer Harold Edgerton began exploring strobe light
technology for high speed photography. This led him to the invention of the xenon
flash lamp in which light is generated by passing brief electric current through a
tube filled with xenon gas. In 1934, Edgerton was able to generate flashes as brief
as one microsecond with this method.[15][30][31]

In 1939, American physician Albert R. Behnke Jr. began exploring the causes of
"drunkenness" in deep-sea divers. He tested the effects of varying the breathing
mixtures on his subjects, and discovered that this caused the divers to perceive a
change in depth. From his results, he deduced that xenon gas could serve as an
anesthetic. Although Russian toxicologist Nikolay V. Lazarev apparently studied
xenon anesthesia in 1941, the first published report confirming xenon anesthesia
was in 1946 by American medical researcher John H. Lawrence, who experimented on
mice. Xenon was first used as a surgical anesthetic in 1951 by American
anesthesiologist Stuart C. Cullen, who successfully used it with two patients.[32]

An acrylic cube specially prepared for element collectors containing liquefied

xenon
Xenon and the other noble gases were for a long time considered to be completely
chemically inert and not able to form compounds. However, while teaching at the
University of British Columbia, Neil Bartlett discovered that the gas platinum
hexafluoride (PtF6) was a powerful oxidizing agent that could oxidize oxygen gas
(O2) to form dioxygenyl hexafluoroplatinate (O+
2[PtF
6]−
).[33] Since O2(1165 kJ/mol) and xenon (1170 kJ/mol) have almost the same first
ionization potential, Bartlett realized that platinum hexafluoride might also be
able to oxidize xenon. On March 23, 1962, he mixed the two gases and produced the
first known compound of a noble gas, xenon hexafluoroplatinate.[34][14]

Bartlett thought its composition to be Xe+[PtF6]−, but later work revealed that it
was probably a mixture of various xenon-containing salts.[35][36][37] Since then,
many other xenon compounds have been discovered,[38] in addition to some compounds
of the noble gases argon, krypton, and radon, including argon fluorohydride (HArF),
[39] krypton difluoride (KrF2),[40][41] and radon fluoride.[42] By 1971, more than
80 xenon compounds were known.[43][44]

In November 1989, IBM scientists demonstrated a technology capable of manipulating

individual atoms. The program, called IBM in atoms, used a scanning tunneling
microscope to arrange 35 individual xenon atoms on a substrate of chilled crystal
of nickel to spell out the three letter company initialism. It was the first time
atoms had been precisely positioned on a flat surface.[45]

Characteristics

A layer of solid xenon floating on top of liquid xenon inside a high voltage
apparatus.

Liquid (featureless) and crystalline solid Xe nanoparticles produced by implanting

Xe+ ions into aluminium at room temperature.
Xenon has atomic number 54; that is, its nucleus contains 54 protons. At standard
temperature and pressure, pure xenon gas has a density of 5.894 kg/m3, about 4.5
times the density of the Earth's atmosphere at sea level, 1.217 kg/m3.[46] As a
liquid, xenon has a density of up to 3.100 g/mL, with the density maximum occurring
at the triple point.[47] Liquid xenon has a high polarizability due to its large
atomic volume, and thus is an excellent solvent. It can dissolve hydrocarbons,
biological molecules, and even water.[48] Under the same conditions, the density of
solid xenon, 3.640 g/cm3, is greater than the average density of granite, 2.75
g/cm3.[47] Under gigapascals of pressure, xenon forms a metallic phase.[49]

Solid xenon changes from face-centered cubic (fcc) to hexagonal close packed (hcp)
crystal phase under pressure and begins to turn metallic at about 140 GPa, with no
noticeable volume change in the hcp phase. It is completely metallic at 155 GPa.
When metallized, xenon appears sky blue because it absorbs red light and transmits
other visible frequencies. Such behavior is unusual for a metal and is explained by
the relatively small width of the electron bands in that state.[50][51]

Xenon flash
(animated version)
Liquid or solid xenon nanoparticles can be formed at room temperature by implanting
Xe+ ions into a solid matrix. Many solids have lattice constants smaller than solid
Xe. This results in compression of the implanted Xe to pressures that may be
sufficient for its liquefaction or solidification.[52]

Xenon is a member of the zero-valence elements that are called noble or inert
gases. It is inert to most common chemical reactions (such as combustion, for
example) because the outer valence shell contains eight electrons. This produces a
stable, minimum energy configuration in which the outer electrons are tightly
bound.[53]

In a gas-filled tube, xenon emits a blue or lavenderish glow when excited by

electrical discharge. Xenon emits a band of emission lines that span the visual
spectrum,[54] but the most intense lines occur in the region of blue light,
producing the coloration.[55]

Occurrence and production

Xenon is a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere, occurring at a volume fraction of 87±1
nL/L (parts per billion), or approximately 1 part per 11.5 million.[56] It is also
found as a component of gases emitted from some mineral springs. Given a total mass
of the atmosphere of 5.15×1018 kilograms (1.135×1019 lb), the atmosphere contains
on the order of 2.03 gigatonnes (2.00×109 long tons; 2.24×109 short tons) of xenon
in total when taking the average molar mass of the atmosphere as 28.96 g/mol which
is equivalent to some 394 mass ppb.

Commercial
Xenon is obtained commercially as a by-product of the separation of air into oxygen
and nitrogen.[57] After this separation, generally performed by fractional
distillation in a double-column plant, the liquid oxygen produced will contain
small quantities of krypton and xenon. By additional fractional distillation, the
liquid oxygen may be enriched to contain 0.1–0.2% of a krypton/xenon mixture, which
is extracted either by adsorption onto silica gel or by distillation. Finally, the
krypton/xenon mixture may be separated into krypton and xenon by further
distillation.[58][59]

Worldwide production of xenon in 1998 was estimated at 5,000–7,000 cubic metres

(180,000–250,000 cu ft).[60] At a density of 5.894 grams per litre (0.0002129 lb/cu
in) this is equivalent to roughly 30 to 40 tonnes (30 to 39 long tons; 33 to 44
short tons). Because of its scarcity, xenon is much more expensive than the lighter
noble gases—approximate prices for the purchase of small quantities in Europe in
1999 were 10 €/L (=~1.7€/g) for xenon, 1 €/L (=~0.27€/g) for krypton, and 0.20 €/L
(=~0.22€/g) for neon,[60] while the much more plentiful argon, which makes up over
1% by volume of earth's atmosphere, costs less than a cent per liter.
Solar system
Within the Solar System, the nucleon fraction of xenon is 1.56 × 10−8, for an
abundance of approximately one part in 630 thousand of the total mass.[61] Xenon is
relatively rare in the Sun's atmosphere, on Earth, and in asteroids and comets. The
abundance of xenon in the atmosphere of planet Jupiter is unusually high, about 2.6
times that of the Sun.[62][63] This abundance remains unexplained, but may have
been caused by an early and rapid buildup of planetesimals—small, subplanetary
bodies—before the heating of the presolar disk.[64] (Otherwise, xenon would not
have been trapped in the planetesimal ices.) The problem of the low terrestrial
xenon may be explained by covalent bonding of xenon to oxygen within quartz,
reducing the outgassing of xenon into the atmosphere.[65]

Stellar
Unlike the lower-mass noble gases, the normal stellar nucleosynthesis process
inside a star does not form xenon. Elements more massive than iron-56 consume
energy through fusion, and the synthesis of xenon represents no energy gain for a
star.[66] Instead, xenon is formed during supernova explosions,[67] in classical
nova explosions,[68] by the slow neutron-capture process (s-process) in red giant
stars that have exhausted their core hydrogen and entered the asymptotic giant
branch,[69] and from radioactive decay, for example by beta decay of extinct
iodine-129 and spontaneous fission of thorium, uranium, and plutonium.[70]

Nuclear fission
Xenon-135 is a notable neutron poison with a high fission product yield. As it is
relatively short lived, it decays at the same rate it is produced during steady
operation of a nuclear reactor. However, if power is reduced or the reactor is
scramed, less xenon is destroyed than is produced from the beta decay of its parent
nuclides. This phenomenon called xenon poisoning can cause significant problems in
restarting a reactor after a scram or increasing power after it had been reduced
and it was one of several contributing factors in the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
[71][72]

Stable or extremely long lived isotopes of xenon are also produced in appreciable
quantities in nuclear fission. Xenon-136 is produced when xenon-135 undergoes
neutron capture before it can decay. The ratio of xenon-136 to xenon-135 (or its
decay products) can give hints as to the power history of a given reactor and the
absence of xenon-136 is a "fingerprint" for nuclear explosions, as xenon-135 is not
produced directly but as a product of successive beta decays and thus it can't
absorb any neutrons in a nuclear explosion which occurs in fractions of a second.
[73]

The stable isotope xenon-132 has a fission product yield of over 4% in the thermal
neutron fission of 235
U which means that stable or nearly stable xenon isotopes have a higher mass
fraction in spent nuclear fuel (which is about 3% fission products) than it does in
air. However, there is as of 2022 no commercial effort to extract xenon from spent
fuel during nuclear reprocessing.[74][75]

Isotopes
Main article: Isotopes of xenon
Naturally occurring xenon is composed of seven stable isotopes: 126Xe, 128–132Xe,
and 134Xe. The isotopes 126Xe and 134Xe are predicted by theory to undergo double
beta decay, but this has never been observed so they are considered stable.[76] In
addition, more than 40 unstable isotopes have been studied. The longest lived of
these isotopes are the primordial 124Xe, which undergoes double electron capture
with a half-life of 1.8 × 1022 yr,[9] and 136Xe, which undergoes double beta decay
with a half-life of 2.11 × 1021 yr.[77] 129Xe is produced by beta decay of 129I,
which has a half-life of 16 million years. 131mXe, 133Xe, 133mXe, and 135Xe are
some of the fission products of 235U and 239Pu,[70] and are used to detect and
monitor nuclear explosions.

Nuclear spin
Nuclei of two of the stable isotopes of xenon, 129Xe and 131Xe, have non-zero
intrinsic angular momenta (nuclear spins, suitable for nuclear magnetic resonance).
The nuclear spins can be aligned beyond ordinary polarization levels by means of
circularly polarized light and rubidium vapor.[78] The resulting spin polarization
of xenon nuclei can surpass 50% of its maximum possible value, greatly exceeding
the thermal equilibrium value dictated by paramagnetic statistics (typically 0.001%
of the maximum value at room temperature, even in the strongest magnets). Such non-
equilibrium alignment of spins is a temporary condition, and is called
hyperpolarization. The process of hyperpolarizing the xenon is called optical
pumping (although the process is different from pumping a laser).[79]

Because a 129Xe nucleus has a spin of 1/2, and therefore a zero electric quadrupole
moment, the 129Xe nucleus does not experience any quadrupolar interactions during
collisions with other atoms, and the hyperpolarization persists for long periods
even after the engendering light and vapor have been removed. Spin polarization of
129Xe can persist from several seconds for xenon atoms dissolved in blood[80] to
several hours in the gas phase[81] and several days in deeply frozen solid xenon.
[82] In contrast, 131Xe has a nuclear spin value of 3⁄2 and a nonzero quadrupole
moment, and has t1 relaxation times in the millisecond and second ranges.[83]

From fission
Some radioactive isotopes of xenon (for example, 133Xe and 135Xe) are produced by
neutron irradiation of fissionable material within nuclear reactors.[12] 135Xe is
of considerable significance in the operation of nuclear fission reactors. 135Xe
has a huge cross section for thermal neutrons, 2.6×106 barns,[23] and operates 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. However, 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).[84] 135Xe
reactor poisoning was a major factor in the Chernobyl disaster.[85] A shutdown or
decrease of power of a reactor can result in buildup of 135Xe, with reactor
operation going into a condition known as the iodine pit. Under adverse conditions,
relatively high concentrations of radioactive xenon isotopes may emanate from
cracked fuel rods,[86] or fissioning of uranium in cooling water.[87]

Isotope ratios of xenon produced in natural nuclear fission reactors at Oklo in

Gabon reveal the reactor properties during chain reaction that took place about 2
billion years ago.[88]

Cosmic processes
Because xenon is a tracer for two parent isotopes, xenon isotope ratios in
meteorites are a powerful tool for studying the formation of the Solar System. The
iodine–xenon method of dating gives the time elapsed between nucleosynthesis and
the condensation of a solid object from the solar nebula. In 1960, physicist John
H. Reynolds discovered that certain meteorites contained an isotopic anomaly in the
form of an overabundance of xenon-129. He inferred that this was a decay product of
radioactive iodine-129. This isotope is produced slowly by cosmic ray spallation
and nuclear fission, but is produced in quantity only in supernova explosions.[89]
[90]

Because the half-life of 129I is comparatively short on a cosmological time scale

(16 million years), this demonstrated that only a short time had passed between the
supernova and the time the meteorites had solidified and trapped the 129I. These
two events (supernova and solidification of gas cloud) were inferred to have
happened during the early history of the Solar System, because the 129I isotope was
likely generated shortly before the Solar System was formed, seeding the solar gas
cloud with isotopes from a second source. This supernova source may also have
caused collapse of the solar gas cloud.[89][90]

In a similar way, xenon isotopic ratios such as 129Xe/130Xe and 136Xe/130Xe are a
powerful tool for understanding planetary differentiation and early outgassing.[22]
For example, the atmosphere of Mars shows a xenon abundance similar to that of
Earth (0.08 parts per million[91]) but Mars shows a greater abundance of 129Xe than
the Earth or the Sun. Since this isotope is generated by radioactive decay, the
result may indicate that Mars lost most of its primordial atmosphere, possibly
within the first 100 million years after the planet was formed.[92][93] In another
example, excess 129Xe found in carbon dioxide well gases from New Mexico is
believed to be from the decay of mantle-derived gases from soon after Earth's
formation.[70][94]