Abstract
IT is known that the rare gases argon, krypton and xenon give unstable chemical compounds with van der Waals bonds, namely, the hydrates. They have been obtained by compressing the gas over water at 0° C. In the case of argon, the crystals of the hydrate are formed at a partial pressure of argon of about 100 atm. I have already shown by an independent method1 that radon, too, forms a hydrate which is much more stable than those of other rare gases. Radon is easily held by crystals of sulphur dioxide hydrates, when they are formed from snow and sulphur dioxide below the eutectic point or recrystallized. The radon hydrate is isomorphous with the hydrate SO2.6H2O, as its distribution between the gaseous phase and the crystal obeys the Berthelot-Nernst law: the ratio Rn/SO2 in crystals is proportional to the corresponding ratio in the gas: where the constant D for Rn has the value 0·6.
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Nikitin, B. A., Z. anorg. allg. Chem., 227, 81 (1936).
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NIKITIN, B. Chemical Properties of the Rare Gases. Nature 140, 643 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140643a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140643a0
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