Question

Why do helium and neon not form clathrate compounds with quinol?

Answer 1

Hint: A clathrate is a chemical compound consisting of a lattice that traps or contains other molecules. This word is a Latin word which means to be “with bars” or being trapped. These compounds are polymeric in nature and completely envelope the guest molecule. Helium and neon are the first two members of the noble gas family and are thus smaller than the rest.

Complete step by step solution
Clathrates are typical host molecules that form complex molecules with the guest molecules and form the host-guest complexes. Typical examples for the host-guest clathrate compound are the inclusion compounds formed by the inorganic polymers such as zeolites and other host compounds such as calixarenes and cyclodextrins.
The formation of a host-guest inclusion is dependent upon the size of the cavity. The clathrates that are formed by the quinol molecules have large size and hence the small noble gas molecules of helium and neon cannot be contained within those cavities as the cavities are larger in comparison to their size.
Hence, helium and neon do not form clathrate compounds with quinol. Instead neon forms “clathrate hydrates” or gas hydrates that are crystalline water based compounds resembling the ice.

Note
The host molecules here are the water molecules and the gases that are trapped are generally small non-polar molecules or polar molecules with large hydrophobic moieties. Most low molecular weight compounds such as oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulphide, etc. as well as some lower molecular weight freons and higher hydrocarbons also form the clathrates. These are also seen to be formed on large bases in nature.