Issue 41, 2013

Bartlett's discovery of noble gas fluorides, a milestone in chemical history

Abstract

In 1962, Neil Bartlett published a terse note in Proc. Chem. Soc. eradicating the long held dogma that noble gases are inert and cannot form stable compounds. This historical discovery has revolutionized our views on chemistry and has given rise to thousands of papers on noble gas chemistry. The fact that his proposed reaction product “Xe+[PtF6]” has eluded experimental detection for more than half a century and actually was a mixture of XeF+ and Xe2F3+ salts does not diminish the enormous impact of his discovery. A plausible explanation for the failures to observe “Xe+[PtF6]” experimentally is presented.

Graphical abstract: Bartlett's discovery of noble gas fluorides, a milestone in chemical history

  • This article is part of the themed collection: Viewpoints

Article information

Article type
Viewpoint
Submitted
22 feb 2013
Accepted
25 mar 2013
First published
04 apr 2013

Chem. Commun., 2013,49, 4588-4590

Bartlett's discovery of noble gas fluorides, a milestone in chemical history

K. O. Christe, Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 4588 DOI: 10.1039/C3CC41387J

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