I got a big envelope in the mail that had written on the front, "Photographs: Do Not Bend."
Underneath the mailman wrote, "Oh, yes they do."
First xenon compoundIn 1962, the first compound of any “inert gas” was made by Neil Barlett by reacting platinum hexafluorideand xenon to form XePtF6, a yellow-orange solid that was stable at room temperature. The previous autumn, he had prepared a remarkable compound of oxygen with platinum hexafluoride. In that compound, [O2]+[PtF6]–, the platinum hexafluoride, PtF6 was such an extreme oxidizer that the oxygen formed a positive cation. Interestingly, the energy to remove an electron from oxygen (12.2 eV), he realized, was extremely close to that for xenon (12.13 eV). This suggested a xenon compound could be made in a similar way. His success ended the half-century belief that xenon was an inert gas, and is since known as a “noble” gas.« |
