When you see a neon sign glowing in a shop window, it is likely the result of electric discharge inside of a tube. Neon is one of the noble gases, and it has a characteristic bright red-orange glow when electricity passes through it. This is because of its unique chemistry.
It was first isolated in 1898 by Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers at the University of London. They had chilled a sample of air until it became liquid, and then separated the individual elements by heating it. They were already aware of argon and krypton, so they knew that the element they were looking for must be between helium and argon in the periodic table. They stumbled upon neon when they ran a high voltage across the first sample of gas, which caused it to glow a brilliant red under spectroscopic discharge. They gave it its name based on the Greek word for new, neos, and they later discovered krypton and xenon as well.
Neon is a highly inert gas and doesn’t react with other molecules, forming only molecular ions or excimers that have an incomplete octet of electrons. These are primarily weak Van der Waals molecules or fragile molecules held together by only weak forces. It is one of the rarest gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, but it is readily available in liquid form by liquefying and separating air. The neon we use today is extracted from this liquid, and it is usually combined with helium to make neon-helium signs that can be used in cold temperatures.
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