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Neon signs home >> Neon sign articles >> Periodic Table of the Elements - Neon Chemistry
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If you travel down memory lane to your high school chemistry class you might recall the periodic table with its rows and columns of elements systematically arranged according to their atomic numbers and chemical properties. The periodic table is the basis for understanding all about the seemingly obscure elements. |
People knew about elements like carbon and gold from time immemorial. It is now common knowledge that each element has a unique number of protons. If you research samples of iron or silver, you can ascertain how many protons the atoms have. It is easy to distinguish the elements apart because they have different properties. Scientists wanted to organize the elements so that one could tell at a glance which ones had similar properties? This gave birth to the concept of periodic table.
It is widely acknowledged that Dmitri Mendeleev was the first scientist to create a periodic table of the elements, more or less, in conformity with the one we use today. The original table of Mendeleev drawn in 1869 showed the elements were ordered by their increasing atomic weight.
The purpose behind Mendeleev creating a periodic table was to aid identification of the many elements that remained to be discovered during Mendeleev's time. The periodic table also helped predict the properties of new elements. This is proved by the fact that Mendeleev's table didn't have very many elements but question marks and spaces in between elements. He left spaces to fit in the new elements as and when discovered.
| Neon, as we all know, is a very inert element. In a vacuum discharge tube, neon glows reddish orange. It is found that of all the rare gases, the discharge of neon is the most intense at ordinary voltages and currents. Neon is present in the atmosphere as 1 part in 65000 and liquid neon has more than 40 times refrigerating capacity than liquid helium, and more than 3 times that of liquid hydrogen. |
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Neon has symbol Ne, atomic number 10 and atomic weight 20.1797 (6). Its standard state is gas 298 K and CAS Registry is ID 7440-01-9. Further details of Neon are: group in periodic table is 18, group name is Noble Gas, period in periodic table is 2, block in periodic table is p-block, it is colorless and classification is non-metallic. While Neon is inert, there are findings of it combining with fluorine. The melting point of neon is -248.67°C and boiling point is -246.048°C (1 atm). Neon may also form ions in combination with other noble gases (NeAr, HeNe, Ne2 and with hydrogen (NeH). It also forms an unstable hydrate.
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Neon is present to a negligibly small extent in the atmosphere and is obtained as a byproduct from the liquefaction and separation of air. Natural neon is a mix of three isotopes. Five other unstable isotopes of neon are known. |
Annual world production of Neon is around 1 ton. Neon is used to make neon signs. Neon and helium are used to make gas lasers. Neon is used in lightning arrestors, television tubes, high-voltage indicators, and wave meter tubes. Liquid neon is used as a cryogenic refrigerant, as it has over 40 times the refrigerating capacity per unit volume than liquid helium and over three times that of liquid hydrogen.
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