Most people are familiar with neon because it’s the chemical element that is used to make those iconic illuminated signs we all know and love. It’s also used in a variety of other types of lighting but is best known for its reddish orange glow.
Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions. It’s in the noble gas group and can be found in the rightmost column of the Periodic Table. Noble gases are so called because they react very unwillingly with other elements or compounds. Neon does form a compound with fluorine under certain laboratory conditions but otherwise is essentially inert.
When cooled down enough, neon becomes a liquid at about minus 183 Celsius. This is the coldest liquid state of any element. It can be recovered from air and is sold commercially as a cryogenic refrigerant. It has the advantage over liquid helium of having a lower freezing point, meaning it can be kept at much higher temperatures.
Like its noble gas comrades, neon is a non-flammable, inert gas that doesn’t cause any ecological damage. It can, however, be toxic to humans when inhaled. The symptoms of asphyxiation are rapid respirations, shortness of breath, a feeling of weakness and loss of energy, a bloated abdomen and eventually death from lack of oxygen to the brain.
While other colors can be made by combining different noble gasses, neon is the only color that is created by itself. This is because it requires an electric current to be passed through a discharge tube which accelerates a free electron up to a maximum kinetic energy. It then ionizes the atoms and leaves behind positively charged ions which emit light. You can see the whole process in this great video by Stereokroma TV.
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