History
In 1962, Neil Bartlett discovered that a mixture of platinum hexafluoride gas and oxygen formed a red solid. The red solid turned out to be dioxygenyl hexafluoroplatinate, O2+−. Bartlett noticed that the ionization energy for O2 (1175 kJ mol−1) was very close to the ionization energy for Xe (1170 kJ mol−1). He then asked his colleagues to give him some xenon "so that he could try out some reactions", whereupon he established that xenon indeed reacts with PtF6. Although, as discussed above, the product was probably a mixture of several compounds, Bartlett's work was the first proof that compounds could be prepared from a noble gas. His discovery illustrates that the finding of new chemical methods often lead initially to impure products. Since Bartlett's observation, many well-defined compounds of xenon have been reported including XeF2, XeF4, and XeF6.
Read more about this topic: Xenon Hexafluoroplatinate
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