Neon is a rare element found naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. It is also one of the lightest noble gases, along with helium. It is obtained by fractional distillation of liquid air and is colorless but glows reddish orange in an electric discharge.
In 1898, British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers isolated the gas neon from argon in a process called spectroscopic discharge. They chilled a sample of air to a liquid, then warmed the liquid and collected the gases that boiled off. They then put the resulting sample into a spectrometer that showed a brilliant red glow.
The name “neon” comes from the Greek word neos, which means new. The chemists named the element “neon” because it was discovered just recently.
When an electric current is applied to the atoms of the gas (neon, argon and other noble gases can also be used), some electrons escape their atoms and gain enough energy to move into a higher orbit around the nucleus. This higher orbit is called being excited and gives the atoms in the gas their light colors.
Those excited electrons are released as photons of light, the wavelength of which is determined by the gas being used. The rays of the light are then reflected back to where they came from by other atoms, giving off a specific color of light.
The most famous application of neon is the brightly lit advertising signs we see today. These signs are made of glass tubes that have a reddish-orange gas inside them. When the gas glows, the letters on the sign glow as well. This makes it easy for people to read the messages on a sign. Traditional neon signs require specialist engineers to install and are often prone to breakage.
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