Neon is the gas that illuminates signs and marquees in cities around the world. It is one of the noble gases, found in the rightmost column of the periodic table, and is odorless, colorless, and lighter than air. Like its comrades helium, argon, krypton, and xenon, neon is very inert, meaning that it does not react with other elements. (Neon can form a compound with fluorine under certain conditions, but that is rare.)
Neon was first isolated by Scottish chemist William Ramsay and his British colleague Morris Travers in 1898, according to Chemicool. Ramsay knew that an element had to be sitting between helium and argon in the periodic table, but he was not sure what that element might be. After analyzing liquefied air, he realized that it was neon.
When you shine a low-intensity electric current through neon, it becomes ionized—it picks up electrons from the surrounding molecules and gets positively charged. The ions then fly towards the negative electrode at the end of a tube, releasing their electrons in a process called discharge. As the electrons fly off, they gain energy, and when they recapture their electrons to become neutral again, they release a photon of light. The color of the light is determined by how much energy the atoms have gained, as described by their “excitation ladder”—the higher up the ladder they are, the brighter the glow.
Neon is nonflammable, noncombustible, and nontoxic, though contact with very cold liquefied neon can cause frostbite on the skin. Neon is also noncorrosive and does not react with most metals and plastics. It is sometimes used as a cryogenic refrigerant.
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