Neon is the newest and boldest color on the block, showing up on runway fashions and influencing high-street styles. Bold and eye-catching, neon colors evoke strong emotions and create a distinctive style that stands out from the crowd. While neon hues have a modern, trendy feel, they can also be blended with softer, more muted colors to provide stunning contrast and highlight key design elements.
When a tube of neon is lit, it glows with a vibrant reddish-orange color. It’s not commonly found in nature—neon only makes up 0.0018 percent of Earth’s atmosphere, according to Chemicool. It was discovered in 1898 by chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers while they were trying to isolate argon from liquid air.
The researchers were able to isolate argon from the sample, but it took time to find neon. Ramsay knew the new element must be between helium and argon on the Periodic Table, so he froze an argon sample and then evaporated it to collect the gas that emerged. When he ran an electric current through the neon, it illuminated a bright crimson color—that’s how neon was discovered.
Like the other noble gases, neon is odorless and tasteless, but it can form compounds with fluorine under certain conditions. It’s also nonreactive, since its outermost electron shell has a complete octet and doesn’t want to swap with other atoms. It does, however, react with hydrogen under certain conditions, forming molecules and ions that are short-lived. [Handling Chemicals Safely 1980] Neon is nonflammable and noncombustible, but it can asphyxiate if inhaled in high concentrations. It is also a cryogenic refrigerant and has much higher freezing points than helium or hydrogen, but can cause frostbite if skin contact occurs.