Question

Write the names of inert gases.

Answer 1

Hint: Also known as the noble gases or the inert gases,they are known to occupy the zeroth group in the periodic table,and consist of seven elements,which are the end members of respective period of the periodic table.

Complete step by step:
Let us talk about the members of the inert gases:
- Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon,and Radon,are the members of inert gases.
-All of these except helium,have the highly stabilised \[\text{n}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\text{n}{{\text{p}}^{\text{6}}}\] configuration in their valence shell,whereas helium has stable \[\text{1}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\]configuration.
- All of these are gases and are chemically unreactive, thus known as inert gases.
 Let us briefly know about their electronic configuration:
- Helium(He): \[\text{1}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\]
- Neon(Ne): \[\left[ \text{He} \right]\text{2}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\text{2}{{\text{p}}^{\text{6}}}\]
- Argon(Ar): \[\left[ \text{Ne} \right]\text{3}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\text{3}{{\text{p}}^{\text{6}}}\]
- Krypton(Kr): \[\left[ \text{Ar} \right]\text{3}{{\text{d}}^{\text{10}}}\text{4}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\text{4}{{\text{p}}^{\text{6}}}\]
- Xenon(Xe): \[\left[ \text{Kr} \right]\text{4}{{\text{d}}^{\text{10}}}\text{5}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\text{5}{{\text{p}}^{\text{6}}}\]
- Radon(Rn): \[\left[ \text{Xe} \right]\text{4}{{\text{f}}^{\text{14}}}\text{5}{{\text{d}}^{\text{10}}}\text{6}{{\text{s}}^{\text{2}}}\text{6}{{\text{p}}^{\text{6}}}\]
This elements share many similar properties,some of them are:
- All the orbitals in the atoms of these elements are doubly occupied, electrons can't participate in bonding.
- These gases exhibit very high ionisation enthalpy.
- As they have no tendency to accept the electron and therefore ,have large positive values of electron gain enthalpy.
- All these noble gases are monatomic, and they are colourless, odourless and tasteless.
- All these elements have very low melting and boiling points because of only one type of interatomic interaction that is the weak dispersion force and thus they are liquefied at very low temperatures.
- Helium has the lowest boiling point (\[\text{4}\text{.2K}\]) of any known substance.
- All these gases have a characteristic spectra by which they can be easily noticed.
- They show an increase in atomic radii with increase in atomic number.
- Though no true compounds of Helium,Neon,or Argon are yet to be known, there are very less compounds of Krypton too.
- Though we have few fluorides and oxygen based compounds of xenon.

Additional information:
-Helium is a non inflammable and light gas, and thus found its use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) and filling balloons in meteorological observations.
-Neon is used in discharge tubes and fluorescent bulbs for display.
-Argon mainly provides an inert atmosphere for processes of arc welding of metals or alloys.
-There are no significant uses of Krypton and Xenon,and thus used in filling incandescent metal filament bulbs.
-Radon is generally used in radiography of cancer and photography of opaque internals.

Note: Most of the properties of noble gases including their chemically inert nature are ascribed to their closed valence structures.Since they exist in free form, air is the most important source except radon.