Neon is a color that’s used to grab attention and communicate energy and excitement. It’s a great choice for out-of-the-box branding and posters as well as web and mobile apps. The psychedelic appeal of neon colors also makes them a popular choice for raves and other events, where they can add an energetic feel to the atmosphere.
The neon that we see in signs and other lights is the result of a special chemical reaction. Inside a glass tube, there’s a gas such as neon, argon or krypton at low pressure. When a high voltage is applied across the electrodes, the electrons in the gas are excited (or “ionized”). This causes them to jump up to a higher energy level and emit light. The specific color of the light that’s produced depends on the energy level at which the atoms are excited (i.e., the wavelength of the emitted radiation).
A variety of gases can produce neon light, but the two most commonly used for this purpose are neon and argon. Other noble gases such as helium, krypton and xenon can also produce neon-like light, but their production is difficult because they require extremely low temperatures and high pressures.
The element neon was discovered in 1898 by chemists William Ramsay of Scotland and Morris Travers of England. Ramsay knew that an element must exist between helium and argon on the Periodic Table, but he was not sure how to find it until he froze a sample of argon using liquid air and then evaporated it, discovering that the resulting gas glowed a bright red color when run through a high-voltage discharge. He named the newfound element neon after the Greek word neos, meaning “new.” Neon is one of the four residual rare inert gases that remain in Earth’s atmosphere after nitrogen, oxygen and argon have been removed, but it’s relatively common in the universe and Solar System. It’s fifth in cosmic abundance behind hydrogen, helium, oxygen and carbon, but it’s very rare on Earth and other inner planets due to its high volatility and inability to form compounds that would fix it to solids.