The Compound Neon – Electron Configuration

Neon is a light, colourless and odourless gas, it readily reacts with any other substance. It is an element with the symbol Ne

The electron configuration of neon consisting of its atomic number of 10 (Ne^10).

Neon was discovered by William Ramsay and Morris Travers in 1898.

Neon is the second lightest inert gas in Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table, it’s colour reddish-orange in the vacuum discharge tube and in neon lamps.

The refrigerating power of helium is more than 40 times that of liquid helium and three times that of liquid hydrogen (per unit volume). In most cases, it is a cheaper refrigerant than helium.

Electron Configuration Of Neon(Ne)

Neon is the 10th element with a total of 10 electrons. In writing the electron configuration for neon, the first two electrons will go in the 1s orbital.

Since 1s can only hold two electrons, the next 2 electrons for Ne will go in the 2s orbital. The remaining six electrons will go in the 2p orbital. Therefore, the configuration of the Ne electron will be 1s₂2s₂2p₆.

Since the second energy level (2s₂2p₆) has eight electrons, Neon has an octet and has a complete outer shell. Therefore, it is a Noble gas.

Watch The Configuration Notation of Neon in this video below

Discovery

In 1898, William Ramsay and Morris Travers at University College London isolated krypton gas by evaporating liquid argon.

They expected to find a lighter gas that would fit in a niche above argon in the periodic table of elements.

Then they repeated their experiment, this time allowing the solid argon to evaporate slowly under reduced pressure, and collected the gas that came out first.

This time the experiment was a success, and when they put a sample of the new gas into their atomic spectrometer, it struck them with the brilliant red glow we now associate with neon signs.

Ramsay called the new gas neon, based on neos, the Greek word for “new.

Uses

* The greatest use of neon is in the making of the ever-present “neon lights” for signals. In a vacuum discharge tube, neon glows a reddish orange color. Only the red signs actually contain pure neon. Others contain different gases to give different colors.

* Neon is also used to make high voltage indicators and switching devices, lightning rods, diving gear and lasers.

* Liquid neon is an important cryogenic refrigerant. It has more than 40 times the cooling capacity per unit volume of liquid helium and more than 3 times that of liquid hydrogen.

Natural Abundance

Neon is the fifth most abundant element in the universe.

However, it is present in the Earth’s atmosphere at a concentration of only 18 parts per million.

It is extracted by fractional distillation of liquid air. This yields a fraction that contains both helium and neon. The helium is removed from the mixture with activated carbon.

Credit:

https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/10/neon

https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~wbreslyn/chemistry/electron-configurations/configurationNeon.html