Uses of Noble Gases: Raman visited his friend’s house to attend his birthday party. And, he was surprised to see that ballons were stuck to the ceiling. Do you know how these ballons were stuck to the roof without any support? These balloons were filled with helium gas. Helium is lighter and less dense than air, floats in it. A balloon blown up by mouth will not float since the air and the balloon’s fabric weighs more than the air around it. Helium is a noble gas that belongs to group \(18\) of the periodic table. Let’s learn some of the uses of noble gases.

Introduction to Noble Gases

Noble gases or inert gases are the elements that make up the last column of the periodic table. The last column of the modern periodic table comprises seven elements. As their name suggests, these elements are called noble because they have complete octet configuration and are least reactive. As they are the least reactive, they are the most stable.

Element	Atomic Number	Eectronic Configuration	Group Number	Period Number
Helium	\(2\)	\(1{{\rm{s}}^2}\)	\(18\)	\(1\)
Neon	\(10\)	\(1{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{p}}^6}\)	\(18\)	\(2\)
Argon	\(18\)	\(1{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{p}}^6}3{{\rm{s}}^2}3{{\rm{p}}^6}\)	\(18\)	\(3\)
Krypton	\(36\)	\(1{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{p}}^6}3{{\rm{s}}^2}\) \(3{{\rm{p}}^6}3{{\rm{d}}^{10}}{\rm{4}}{{\rm{s}}^2}4{{\rm{p}}^6}\)	\(18\)	\(4\)
Xenon	\(54\)	\(1{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{p}}^6}3{{\rm{s}}^2}3{{\rm{p}}^6}\) \(3{{\rm{d}}^{10}}{\rm{4}}{{\rm{s}}^2}4{{\rm{p}}^6}4{{\rm{d}}^{10}}5{{\rm{s}}^2}5{{\rm{p}}^6}\)	\(18\)	\(5\)
Radon	\(86\)	\(1{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{s}}^2}2{{\rm{p}}^6}3{{\rm{s}}^2}3{{\rm{p}}^6}3{{\rm{d}}^{10}}{\rm{4}}{{\rm{s}}^2}\) \(4{{\rm{p}}^6}4{{\rm{d}}^{10}}5{{\rm{s}}^2}5{{\rm{p}}^6}5{{\rm{d}}^{10}}6{{\rm{s}}^2}6{{\rm{p}}^6}\)	\(18\)	\(6\)

Helium

Helium is the most abundant element in the universe. It gets its name from Helios, the Greek god of the Sun. There isn’t much of it in our atmosphere, only making up \(0.0005\% \) of the air we breathe, but the uses of this member of the noble gas family are plenty.

Uses for Helium

1. Deep-sea diving: Deep-sea divers carry cylinders that contain a mixture of oxygen and helium. This creates a nitrogen-atmosphere for the divers to breathe and prevents nitrogen narcosis when they dive deep and ascend quickly.
2. Cryogenic materials: Helium boils at \( – 269\,^\circ {\rm{C}}.\) The low boiling point of helium, which is only \(4\,^\circ {\rm{C}}\) above the absolute zero temperature \(\left( { – 273\,^\circ {\rm{C}}} \right),\) makes it a very useful coolant. Helium is used to cool metals down to very low temperatures so that they lose their electrical resistance and become super-conductors.
3. Body scanners such as the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) used in hospitals have superconducting wires in their coils to conduct large electric currents. These electric currents produce intense magnetic fields. Helium is used to cool the conducting coils down to very low temperatures to display superconducting properties.
4. Balloons: Helium’s low density is used to fill airships and decorative balloons. It is lighter than air; hence it floats in the air. Therefore, it is used in filling weather balloons, airships and decorative balloons. Hydrogen was once used to fill airships and balloons, but its high reactivity made it dangerous.

Study Classification Of Elements Here

Neon

Neon accounts for \(0.0018\% \) of the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s the fourth most abundant element in the universe.

Uses for Neon

1. Advertising signs: When electricity is passed through the neon gas in a vacuum discharge tube it glows with a reddish-orange colour. Advertising signs are also known as Neon signs. Only red signs contain pure neon.
2. Lasers: Neon is combined with helium to create lasers.
3. Cryogenic materials: Liquid neon is also a valuable cryogenic material, though it isn’t used as often as helium or nitrogen.

Argon

Argon is the most abundant gas among all noble gases found in the atmosphere, making up \(0.93\% \) of the air we breathe. It gets its name from the Greek word Argos, meaning inactive.

Uses for Argon

1. Welding: Argon is often used in arc welding to provide an inert protective shield around the hot metal when welding. It protects the weld from oxidation while it solidifies.
(i) Argon is used to provide an inert protective atmosphere in the production of titanium and other reactive elements.
2. Light bulbs: Argon is a key component in both incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs. It is used in incandescent light bulbs instead of air as it will not react with the tungsten filament even when it is white-hot. The noble gas protects the tungsten filaments from oxidation.
3. Growing semiconductor crystals: Argon is used to create oxygen-less environments required to grow semiconductor crystals.
4. Argon is also used to fill the space between the panes in double glazed windows.

Krypton

Krypton gets its name from Kryptos, the Greek word meaning hidden. It makes up around \(0.0001\% \) of the planet’s atmosphere.

Uses for Krypton

1. Photographic flashes: Krypton and argon are both popular for creating photo flashes for high-speed photography.
2. Advertising signs: When electricity is passed through the krypton gas in a vacuum discharge tube it glows with a bright green colour. Hence, it is popularly used for advertisement signs.
3. Krypton is used commercially to fill energy-saving fluorescent lights.
4. Though Krypton is a noble gas, it reacts with fluorine to produce krypton fluoride used in lasers to manufacture semiconductors and integrated circuit boards.
5. Surgeons use krypton lasers to treat certain eye problems and to remove birthmarks.

Xenon

Xenon makes up \(0.0000087\% \) of our atmosphere and shares its name with the Greek word meaning stranger.

Uses for Xenon

1. Strobe lights: Xenon doesn’t glow when passed through a vacuum discharge tube; instead, it flashes a brilliant white light, making it perfect for creating strobe lights.
2. Sterilization: Xenon lamps generate light on such a frequency capable of destroying bacteria on surfaces and in the air.
3. Ruby lasers: Flash tubes filled with xenon help power ruby lasers used in medicine.
4. Xenon is used in incandescent lighting because less energy is consumed to obtain the same light output as a normal incandescent lamp.
5. With xenon, it is possible to obtain better x-rays with reduced amounts of radiation.
6. Xenon is mixed with oxygen to enhance the contrast in CT imaging.

Radon

Radon is a radioactive noble gas and can create a risk if it seeps into houses. Some of its uses are-

Uses for Radon

1. Cancer therapy: Radon’s inherent radioactive nature finds wide applications in cancer therapy. Radon glass tubes are implanted directly into the tumours as a kind of targeted radiation therapy.
2. Arthritis treatment: When suspended in water, radon gas may treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

Summary

Noble gases are the most stable compounds in the modern periodic table. They are present in the last column, i.e. group \(18\) of the periodic table. These elements have saturated outermost shells, hence are least reactive. They exhibit a valency of zero because loss or gain of electrons does not take place due to stable electronic configuration. Inspite of being highly stable, these elements have a wide number of uses. Xenon is found to form a number of compounds with fluorine. In this article, we learnt the various uses of all the seven noble gases.

Know About Alkali Metals Here

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Uses of Noble Gases

Q.1. Which is the most used noble gas?
Ans: Helium is the most used noble gas. It is widely used in decorative balloons, weather balloons and in diving apparatus.

Q.2. Why are noble gases called noble?
Ans: The noble gases are the elements that belong to group \(18\) of the periodic table. These elements are helium, argon, Krypton, xenon, and radon, in order of their mass. They are called noble gases because they have a complete valence shell which restricts them from reacting with anything in general.

Q.3. Why do inert gases not react?
Ans: Inert gases do not react because they have filled valence orbitals. These filled shells cannot lose or gain electrons, hence make noble gases highly stable. Inspite of high stability, there are some exceptions.

Q.4. Why is helium used in diving apparatus?
Ans: Deep-sea divers carry cylinders that contain a mixture of oxygen and helium. This creates a nitrogen-atmosphere for the divers to breathe and prevents nitrogen narcosis when they dive deep and ascend quickly.

Q.5. Why has it been difficult to study the chemistry of radon?
Ans: Radon is radioactive with a very short half-life which makes the study of the chemistry of radon difficult.