Neon was discovered by William Ramsay and Morris Travers in 1898.
Neon is the second-lightest noble gas, its colour is reddish-orange in a vacuum discharge
tube and in neon lamps. The the refrigerating capacity of helium is over 40 times the one
of liquid helium and three times that of liquid hydrogen (on a per unit volume basis).
It is a less expensive refrigerant than helium in most applications.
Even though neon is for most practical purposes an inert element, it can form an exotic
compound with fluorine in the laboratory. It is not known for certain if this or any neon
compound exists naturally but some evidence suggests that this may be true.
The ions, Ne+, (NeAr)+, (NeH)+, and (HeNe+) are have also been observed from optical
and mass spectrometric research. In addition, neon forms an unstable hydrate.
Applications
The reddish-orange color emitted in neon lights is widely used to make advertising signs.
Neon is also used generically for these types of lights when in reality many other gases
are used to produce different colors of light. Other uses of neon include high-voltage
indicators, lightning arrestors, wave meter tubes and television tubes. Neon and helium
are used to make a type of gas laser.
Liquefied neon is commercially used as an economical cryogenic refrigerant.
Neon in the environment
Although neon is the forth most abundant element in the universe, only 0.0018% in volume of
the earth's atmosphere is neon.
Neon is usually found in the form of a gas with molecules consisting of a single Neon atom.
Neon is a rare gas that is found in the Earth's atmosphere at 1 part in 65,000.
Neon is a rare atmospheric gas and as such is non-toxic and chemically inert. Neon poses no
threat to the environment, and can have no impact at all because it's chemically unreactive and forms no
compounds. No known ecological damage caused by this element.
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