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You wrote:
>>
>>If any of you had ever looked up from trying to
>>see up your lab partners skirt during chemistry
>>class, you might have learned that He is a noble
>>gas and is monatomic except under extreme
>>conditions (ie the surface of the sun, etc.).
>>In fact its noble gas attributes, namely a filled
>>outer octet of electrons is exaclty why it is so
>>unreactive, does not covalently bond to itself
>>or other atoms, and is so useful as an inert,
>>non-narcotic substitute for nitrogen.
[snip]
>>-Devin
>>
>
>Here we go reinventing chemistry again - an octet of electrons
in a
>atom with an atomic #2, atomic wt 4 & an outer shell composed of
2 read
>2 electrons? Come on - read, think before propagating
fallacious
>stuff.
>
>Yes it is a full shell, therefore it is inert - not noble.
Noble
>elements (metals) are Pt, Au, etc that are relatively inert.
They do
>not have full outer shells.
>
>Look up a chem book before writing nonsense.
>
>
>
>
>
>P.S.
>You are completely and absolutely wrong. They are in fact
>"noble" gases.
>The designation "noble metals" refers to the chemical
>similarities of these
>metals, under some conditions, to the noble gases. Did you steal
>a ninth
>grade shemistry book and find the first page with "He" and base
>your sound
>reasoning on such an in depth analysis???
>see other posts about octets, silly
Brief chemistry lesson folows:
He is an inert gas.
In the past the inert gases were referred to as 'noble gases' or
'rare gases', however those two terms have fallen into disfavor
(the former because it is totally non descriptive, the latter
because they are not rare - He is the 2nd most abundant element
in the universe, after H2).
He is an alpha particle with 2 electrons.
That is the alpha particles emitted during radioactive decay are
helium nuclei, 2 protons & two neutrons. Atomic weight 4. (skipping
the decimals)
Like any atom with full valence orbitals, the electrons are very
difficult to remove (ionize). In addition, its small atomic size
means that the electrons are held very tightly (r=9.3*10^^-11 m),
yielding 1st & 2nd ionization potentials of 24.6 v & 54.1 v,
respectively. Compared that to the 1st ionization
potential of Li, 3rd on the Perodic Table, of 5.4 v.
A note on valence orbitals - they are not octets. Octet in
chemistry is a specific term referring to a group of eight
electrons. In general they are an extremely stable group of
electrons, meaning that they are harder to remove from the
orbital than that calcluated from the radii/nucleus attraction
values. All inert gases have 8 electrons in their outer shell
except He, which has 2. Therefore it does not have an octet.
With one electron in their valence shells, Ag [2 8 18 18 1], Pt
[2 8 18 32 17 1], Au [2 8 18 32 18 1] (the 'noble metals', which
are not inert, but difficult to react) are hardly like the inert
gases.
Incidentally N2 is notoriously difficult to react to make into
nitrous, nitric, etc. compounds. But it is not inert like He & the
other 'true' inert gases
I hope I have simplified this chemistry enough that the authors,
who were propagating fallacious information but who responded to the
corrections with infantile remarks like 'silly', will be capable of
comprehending.
Esat Atikkan
--
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