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Compounds

The noble gases show extremely low chemical reactivity; consequently, only a few hundred noble gas compounds have been formed. Neutral compounds in which helium and neon are involved in chemical bonds have not been formed (although some helium-containing ions exist and there is some theoretical evidence for a few neutral helium-containing ones), while xenon, krypton, and argon have shown only minor reactivity. The reactivity follows the order Ne < He < Ar < Kr < Xe < Rn ≪ Og.

In 1933, Linus Pauling predicted that the heavier noble gases could form compounds with fluorine and oxygen. He predicted the existence of krypton hexafluoride (KrF) and xenon hexafluoride (XeF) and speculated that xenon octafluoride (XeF) might exist as an unstable compound, and suggested that xenic acid could form perxenate salts. These predictions were shown to be generally accurate, except that XeF is now thought to be both thermodynamically and kinetically unstable.

Xenon compounds are the most numerous of the noble gas compounds that have been formed. Most of them have the xenon atom in the oxidation state of +2, +4, +6, or +8 bonded to highly electronegative atoms such as fluorine or oxygen, as in xenon difluoride (XeF), xenon tetrafluoride (XeF), xenon hexafluoride (XeF), xenon tetroxide (XeO), and sodium perxenate (Na XeO). Xenon reacts with fluorine to form numerous xenon fluorides according to the following equations:

Some of these compounds have found use in chemical synthesis as oxidizing agents; XeF, in particular, is commercially available and can be used as a fluorinating agent. As of 2007, about five hundred compounds of xenon bonded to other elements have been identified, including organoxenon compounds (containing xenon bonded to carbon), and xenon bonded to nitrogen, chlorine, gold, mercury, and xenon itself. Compounds of xenon bound to boron, hydrogen, bromine, iodine, beryllium, sulphur, titanium, copper, and silver have also been observed but only at low temperatures in noble gas matrices, or in supersonic noble gas jets.

Radon is more reactive than xenon, and forms chemical bonds more easily than xenon does. However, due to the high radioactivity and short half-life of radon isotopes, only a few fluorides and oxides of radon have been formed in practice. Radon goes further towards metallic behavior than xenon; the difluoride RnF is highly ionic, and cationic Rn is formed in halogen fluoride solutions. For this reason, kinetic hindrance makes it difficult to oxidize radon beyond the +2 state. Only tracer experiments appear to have succeeded in doing so, probably forming RnF, RnF, and RnO.

Krypton is less reactive than xenon, but several compounds have been reported with krypton in the oxidation state of +2. Krypton difluoride is the most notable and easily characterized. Under extreme conditions, krypton reacts with fluorine to form KrF according to the following equation:

Compounds in which krypton forms a single bond to nitrogen and oxygen have also been characterized, but are only stable below −60 °C (−76 °F) and −90 °C (−130 °F) respectively.

Krypton atoms chemically bound to other nonmetals (hydrogen, chlorine, carbon) as well as some late transition metals (copper, silver, gold) have also been observed, but only either at low temperatures in noble gas matrices, or in supersonic noble gas jets. Similar conditions were used to obtain the first few compounds of argon in 2000, such as argon fluorohydride (HArF), and some bound to the late transition metals copper, silver, and gold. As of 2007, no stable neutral molecules involving covalently bound helium or neon are known.

Extrapolation from periodic trends predict that oganesson should be the most reactive of the noble gases; more sophisticated theoretical treatments indicate greater reactivity than such extrapolations suggest, to the point where the applicability of the descriptor "noble gas" has been questioned. Oganesson is expected to be rather like silicon or tin in group 14: a reactive element with a common +4 and a less common +2 state, which at room temperature and pressure is not a gas but rather a solid semiconductor. Empirical / experimental testing will be required to validate these predictions. (On the other hand, flerovium, despite being in group 14, is predicted to be unusually volatile, which suggests noble gas-like properties.)

The noble gases—including helium—can form stable molecular ions in the gas phase. The simplest is the helium hydride molecular ion, HeH, discovered in 1925. Because it is composed of the two most abundant elements in the universe, hydrogen and helium, it was believed to occur naturally in the interstellar medium, and it was finally detected in April 2019 using the airborne SOFIA telescope. In addition to these ions, there are many known neutral excimers of the noble gases. These are compounds such as ArF and KrF that are stable only when in an excited electronic state; some of them find application in excimer lasers.

In addition to the compounds where a noble gas atom is involved in a covalent bond, noble gases also form non-covalent compounds. The clathrates, first described in 1949, consist of a noble gas atom trapped within cavities of crystal lattices of certain organic and inorganic substances. The essential condition for their formation is that the guest (noble gas) atoms must be of appropriate size to fit in the cavities of the host crystal lattice. For instance, argon, krypton, and xenon form clathrates with hydroquinone, but helium and neon do not because they are too small or insufficiently polarizable to be retained. Neon, argon, krypton, and xenon also form clathrate hydrates, where the noble gas is trapped in ice.

Noble gases can form endohedral fullerene compounds, in which the noble gas atom is trapped inside a fullerene molecule. In 1993, it was discovered that when C, a spherical molecule consisting of 60 carbon atoms, is exposed to noble gases at high pressure, complexes such as He@C can be formed (the @ notation indicates He is contained inside C but not covalently bound to it). As of 2008, endohedral complexes with helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon have been created. These compounds have found use in the study of the structure and reactivity of fullerenes by means of the nuclear magnetic resonance of the noble gas atom.

Noble gas compounds such as xenon difluoride (XeF) are considered to be hypervalent because they violate the octet rule. Bonding in such compounds can be explained using a three-center four-electron bond model. This model, first proposed in 1951, considers bonding of three collinear atoms. For example, bonding in XeF is described by a set of three molecular orbitals (MOs) derived from p-orbitals on each atom. Bonding results from the combination of a filled p-orbital from Xe with one half-filled p-orbital from each F atom, resulting in a filled bonding orbital, a filled non-bonding orbital, and an empty antibonding orbital. The highest occupied molecular orbital is localized on the two terminal atoms. This represents a localization of charge that is facilitated by the high electronegativity of fluorine.

The chemistry of the heavier noble gases, krypton and xenon, are well established. The chemistry of the lighter ones, argon and helium, is still at an early stage, while a neon compound is yet to be identified.