Chemistry / Unit 12 Chem 2355 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Noble Gas Unreactivity and the Xenon Exception
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The idea
Noble gases were long assumed entirely unreactive because of filled valence shells, until Bartlett's 1962 xenon compound showed heavier noble gases do react under the right conditions.
In practice
Xenon reacts with fluorine gas to form xenon difluoride, one of several known stable xenon-fluorine compounds.
Where people slip
"Noble gas" describes a strong tendency, not an absolute law — "never reactive" misreads the group's corrected history.
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