Rapid Fire
Xenon Gas
- 26 May 2025
- 2 min read
Four British climbers are the first to reach Mount Everest’s summit using Xenon gas by speeding up their acclimatisation.
- About Xenon Gas: Xenon (stranger gas) is a rare, colourless, odourless, chemically stable, and non-reactive gas found in trace amounts in Earth's atmosphere. It is available in solid, liquid, and gaseous states.
- Commercially, xenon is obtained as a by-product of the air separation process, where air is fractionally distilled into oxygen and nitrogen.
- Xenon is a noble gas (inert gas) and therefore they do not react with any other elements. However, xenon can form compounds with fluorine and oxygen.
- Applications of Xenon:
- Mountaineering: It has neuroprotective properties that enhances oxygen delivery, supports acclimatisation, and guards against altitude sickness and hypoxia-related damage.
- Medical: It acts as a natural anesthetic and, when inhaled with oxygen, stimulates hormone production that increases red blood cell count. It is also used to measure blood flow and image the brain, heart, and lungs.
- Lighting: Used in high-intensity lighting such as flash lamps, strobe lights, and car headlights because it emits bright white light.
- Industry: Xenon is used in nuclear energy plants, as filling gas in tubes for televisions and radios, and for etching silicon microprocessors using xenon difluoride.
- Space Exploration: Used as fuel for ion propulsion systems in satellites and deep-space missions.
- Toxicity: Xenon compounds are strong oxidizing agents that are highly toxic and explosive.
| Read More: 150 years of the Periodic Table |
