What is Neon?

Neon is a hot color that can attract attention and bring a sense of excitement to a design. It can also be difficult to pull off well, so it is important to use it sparingly. Neon colors can be especially effective on black backgrounds, where they contrast with the darkest parts of the image. They can be used as an accent, a mark, or even as a background for text.

Neon, which is pronounced “new” and is the second lightest noble gas, was discovered in 1898 by William Ramsay and Morris Travers. The chemists were looking for an element that would fit between argon and krypton in the periodic table. They froze a sample of argon in liquid air, evaporated it, and ran electricity through the gas to see if it glowed. It did, so they named it neon, derived from the Greek word for new (neos).

In a vacuum discharge tube containing neon, a negative electric voltage causes electrons to move away from atoms and towards the positive electrical terminal at one end of the tube. As they do this, they transfer energy to the atoms, and the atoms glow reddish orange. The electrons can return to their ground state only by releasing the energy in photons of visible light.

The unreactive nature of neon makes it useful in scientific research and manufacturing where an inert environment is required, such as the production of silicon semiconductors for microchips. It is also used in lasers, as a coolant, and in high-energy physics research.