Halogens: Reactive Chemicals with High Electronegativity

The noble gases were all isolated for the first time within a period of only five years at the end of the 19th century. Their very existence was not suspected until the 18th century, when early work on the composition of air suggested that it contained small amounts of gases in addition to oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. Helium was the first of the noble gases to be identified, when the existence of this previously unknown element on the sun was demonstrated by new spectral lines seen during a solar eclipse in 1868. Actual samples of helium were not obtained until almost 30 years later, however. In the 1890s, the English physicist J. W. Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) carefully measured the density of the gas that remained after he had removed all O₂, CO₂, and water vapor from air and showed that this residual gas was slightly denser than pure N₂ obtained by the thermal decomposition of ammonium nitrite. In 1894, he and the Scottish chemist William Ramsay announced the isolation of a new “substance” (not necessarily a new element) from the residual nitrogen gas. Because they could not force this substance to decompose or react with anything, they named it argon (Ar), from the Greek argos, meaning “lazy.” Because the measured molar mass of argon was 39.9 g/mol, Ramsay speculated that it was a member of a new group of elements located on the right side of the periodic table between the halogens and the alkali metals. He also suggested that these elements should have a preferred valence of 0, intermediate between the +1 of the alkali metals and the −1 of the halogens.