53 Mind-Blowing Uses Of Xenon For Your Kids To Know

Xenon is a naturally occurring noble gas that was first discovered in 1898.

Like most elements, Xenon cannot be found as a mineral in the Earth's crust but as a gas in the atmosphere. It is extremely rare and costly to extract.

So, what is so important about Atomic number 54 of the periodic table? Where can one find natural Xenon? If you're interested in learning the answers to these questions and more about this chemically unreactive gas, then you're in luck- because we have some exciting Xenon gas facts for you right up ahead.

About Xenon

Xenon is part of Group 18 of the Periodic table and is classified as a noble gas. Noble gases, or inert gases, are gases that do not react with any other elements.

• It is extremely rare for them to interact with other elements, which usually only occurs in certain instances.
• Though Xenon may be mistaken as a completely inert gas at first glance, scientists have been able to create a few Xenon compounds.
• Xenon's atomic number is 54, identified by the symbol 'Xe', with its atomic weight being 131.293 u.
• This colorless, odorless gas has a density of 0.78 oz/gal (5.8971 g/l), which makes it roughly four times as dense as air.
• The atmosphere contains extremely little Xenon.
• It is tconsideredvery rare, with its presence in the atmosphere amounting to 0.1 parts per million.
• It is usually found in mineral springs and is among the various naturally occurring gases in the area.
• There are not many real-world uses for Xenon, and it is mostly used to fill special photographic flash lamps and in certain medicinal procedures.
• Did you know that the name Xenon comes from the Greek word Xenos, which means stranger?
• Xenon was named so by William Ramsay and Morris Travers, who discovered the noble gas in July 1898 at University College London.
• They were experimenting with separating the different components of liquid air and had already extracted neon, argon, and krypton from it.
• Air is mostly composed of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, which make up 99.95% of all air around us.
• It was only after boiling these three gases that the two scientists extracted the rarer gases.
• For their experiment, Ramsay and Travers employed a fresh liquid-air machine that Ludwig Mond, a wealthy entrepreneur, gave them to extract more of the rare gas krypton.
• They eventually isolated a heavier gas by continuously distilling this, and when they examined it in a vacuum tube, it gave out a lovely blue glow.
• They were mystified by its ethereal glow and understood it to be yet another member of the gaseous elements known at the time as the inert group because of their low chemical reactivity.
• Hence, they named the gas after 'Xenos' because of its strange and still unknown nature.
• Though Xenon was considered to be completely unreactive, this was later disproven by English chemist Neil Bartlett in 1962, who successfully created xenon hexafluoroplatinate.
• This led to the discovery of other xenon compounds, including xenon hexafluoride, xenon trioxide, and xenon tetroxide.
• So, how do scientists extract Xenon? The most effective way to extract Xenon is to simply boil down liquid air. Once the major elements like oxygen, nitrogen, and argon are removed, one can acquire Xenon.
• Though it is much easier to do this than it was in the times of Travers and Ramsay, it is still extremely time-consuming and expensive, which is why Xenon is still considered a rare element.
• Xenon is also rare in the atmosphere of the Sun, asteroids, and comets. However, it is unusually abundant in Jupiter, reaching about two and a half times more than that of the Sun.

Uses Of Xenon In Medicine

Though Xenon in its natural state is harmless, it has been discovered that some xenon compounds can be toxic to humans, like xenon difluoride and xenon hydrate. However, it has been estimated that almost 1098956 fl. oz (325000 l) of Xenon is used annually for medicinal purposes.

• Xenon is mostly used in anesthesia, a substance administered to patients to put them in a painless, sleep-like state before surgery.
• Scientists performed experiments using inert gases to create the ideal anesthesia gas. After experimenting with other gases like argon, nitrogen, and krypton, Xenon was used as a successful anesthetic agent on mice in 1946.
• After some more perfecting, it was then tested on human volunteers in 1951, who reported that using certain percentages of Xenon helped increase the patient's pain threshold and put them in a trance-like state.
• However, due to xenons' rarity factor and subsequent high costs, testing was not pursued full-fledged until Japanese and European scientists revisited its uses in 1990, around the same time that the first closed-circuit anesthetic machine was developed and up and running.
• Hence, Xenon was first approved for anesthesia in Russia in 2000, with Germany and other European countries following suit in October 2005.
• However, due to the high expenses incurred when using Xenon, many hospitals currently do not use it, choosing to administer alternate anesthesia to patients instead.
• Xenon has also been discovered to be a remarkable neuroprotectant, a substance that can help repair damaged nerve cells and regenerate parts of the nervous system as a result.
• 127Xe and 133Xe are two radioactive isotopes of Xenon. These isotopes investigate the air and blood flow in the lungs and brain.
• The patient takes in the radioactive gas via a mask. As oxygen or any other gas flows through the body, so does Xenon, which emits radiation inside the body as it travels through to the lungs.
• The traveling radiation can be traced using special detectors, which helps doctors determine the efficiency of the patient's lungs.
• Xenon also plays an important role in the anticancer combination therapy known as photodynamic therapy (PDT), which calls for light and a photosensitizer that tends to collect preferentially in tumors.
• The photosensitizer starts chemical processes that result in the direct or indirect creation of cytotoxic species, which causes the photosensitizer-hosting cell to break down.
• PDT can also affect the vascular system, reducing blood flow to the tumor and helping kill it off.
• The treatment is limited to skin cancer, which is surface-level cancer due to the limited penetration of light into the tissues.
• Even the medicine 5-fluorouracil, used to treat specific forms of cancer, is produced using Xenon.
• High-intensitive arc lamps and other non-laser sources are employed in this process.
• An electrical arc that forms between electrodes in the presence of xenon vapor provides radiation in these lamps.
• They are mostly used to treat non-melanoma skin cancer and other skin conditions.

The Various Uses of Xenon

Xenon does not really have any household uses. It is only used in the medical field and in rare commercial scenarios.

• Xenon is mostly used for its lighting properties (due to its beautiful, mysterious glow), and it is utilized in ultraviolet light-producing high-pressure arc lamps (bactericidal lamps used in labs), stroboscopic lamps, high-intensity arc lamps for motion picture projection, photographic flash lamps, and solar simulators.
• It is also used in strobe lights, which are used in clubs and parties.
• Xenon can also make road signs and other markings, as it shines brighter than conventional lights when illuminated.
• This makes it especially useful at night and helps keep drivers alert and safe. Similarly, Xenon can also be used in car headlights- if a car's lights emit a soft blue glow, you can be sure that they are xenon lamps!
• There are currently numerous ongoing research projects that concentrate on Xenon. For instance, the Xenon Dark Matter Project is currently testing a liquid xenon detector to look for dark matter.
• According to certain theories, the universe is held together by a mysterious 'glue' called dark matter. In this experiment, a temporal projection chamber is filled with liquid Xenon. This can help illuminate any strange behavior occurring among the particles in the chamber, which may indicate the presence of dark matter. 
• Researchers also use a combination of liquid helium and Xenon atoms to study the characteristics of quantum tornadoes.
• Deep-water divers are known to add Xenon to their compressed air tanks to avoid the buildup of nitrogen in their blood, which can result in lethal gas bubbles upon rapid ascension to the surface.
• Xenon is even useful in space- many spacecraft and orbit satellites are held in place using special xenon ion propulsion systems!
• Scientists have also discovered that Xenon possesses nuclear properties, which makes it helpful in manufacturing radios and television sets. Xenon is filled into the tubes inside these machines, which helps them operate smoothly.

Different Isotopes Of Xenon

Nine stable isotopes of Xenon have been discovered to date. Let us read about them now.

• Out of these, seven are normally stable, and two are long-lived isotopes.
• They are 124Xe, 125Xe, 128Xe, 129Xe, 130Xe, 131Xe, 132Xe, 134Xe, and 136Xe.
• Along with these, over 40 more unstable isotopes have also been discovered.
• There are also 18 radioactive isotopes of Xenon, two of which are used in restorative procedures.