page_title: Xenon
section_title: Halides
hierarchical_section_title: Xenon / Compounds / Halides
caption_attribution_description: English: Structure of Xenon tetraflouride, one of the first noble gas compounds to be discovered.
context_page_description: Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a colorless, dense, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, xenon can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the formation of xenon hexafluoroplatinate, the first noble gas compound to be synthesized.
  Xenon is used in flash lamps and arc lamps, and as a general anesthetic. The first excimer laser design used a xenon dimer molecule as the lasing medium, and the earliest laser designs used xenon flash lamps as pumps. Xenon is used to search for hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles and as the propellant for ion thrusters in spacecraft.
  Naturally occurring xenon consists of seven stable isotopes and two long-lived radioactive isotopes. More than 40 unstable xenon isotopes undergo radioactive decay, and the isotope ratios of xenon are an important tool for studying the early history of the Solar System. Radioactive xenon-135 is produced by beta decay from iodine-135, and is the most significant neutron absorber in nuclear reactors.
context_section_description: Three fluorides are known: XeF
  ₂, XeF
  ₄, and XeF
  ₆. XeF is theorized to be unstable. These are the starting points for the synthesis of almost all xenon compounds.
  The solid, crystalline difluoride XeF
  ₂ is formed when a mixture of fluorine and xenon gases is exposed to ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet component of ordinary daylight is sufficient. Long-term heating of XeF
  ₂ at high temperatures under an NiF
  ₂ catalyst yields XeF
  ₆. Pyrolysis of XeF
  ₆ in the presence of NaF yields high-purity XeF
  ₄.
  The xenon fluorides behave as both fluoride acceptors and fluoride donors, forming salts that contain such cations as XeF⁺
   and Xe
  ₂F⁺
  ₃, and anions such as XeF⁻
  ₅, XeF⁻
  ₇, and XeF²⁻
  ₈. The green, paramagnetic Xe⁺
  ₂ is formed by the reduction of XeF
  ₂ by xenon gas.
  XeF
  ₂ also forms coordination complexes with transition metal ions. More than 30 such complexes have been synthesized and characterized.
  Whereas the xenon fluorides are well characterized, with the exception of dichloride XeCl₂ and XeCl₄, the other halides are not known. Xenon dichloride, formed by the high-frequency irradiation of a mixture of xenon, fluorine, and silicon or carbon tetrachloride, is reported to be an endothermic, colorless, crystalline compound that decomposes into the elements at 80 °C. However, XeCl
  ₂ may be merely a van der Waals molecule of weakly bound Xe atoms and Cl
  ₂ molecules and not a real compound. Theoretical calculations indicate that the linear molecule XeCl
  ₂ is less stable than the van der Waals complex. Xenon tetrachloride is more unstable that can’t synthesized by chemical reaction.It was created by radioactive ¹²⁹
  ICl⁻
  ₄ decay.
caption: Xenon tetrafluoride
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