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Helium. hexagonal close-packed (hcp) Helium (from Greek: ἥλιος, romanized: helios, lit. 'sun') is a chemical element; it has symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table.
The noble gases—including helium—can form stable molecular ions in the gas phase. The simplest is the helium hydride molecular ion , HeH + , discovered in 1925. [ 59 ] Because it is composed of the two most abundant elements in the universe, hydrogen and helium, it was believed to occur naturally in the interstellar medium , and it was ...
Helium is the smallest and the lightest noble gas and one of the most unreactive elements, so it was commonly considered that helium compounds cannot exist at all, or at least under normal conditions. [1] Helium's first ionization energy of 24.57 eV is the highest of any element. [2] Helium has a complete shell of electrons, and in this form ...
The temperature required to produce liquid helium is low because of the weakness of the attractions between the helium atoms. These interatomic forces in helium are weak to begin with because helium is a noble gas, but the interatomic attractions are reduced even more by the effects of quantum mechanics.
The noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon) were previously known as 'inert gases' because of their perceived lack of participation in any chemical reactions. The reason for this is that their outermost electron shells (valence shells) are completely filled, so that they have little tendency to gain or lose electrons.
However, helium only has two outer electrons in its outer shell, whereas the other noble gases have eight; and it is an s-block element, whereas all other noble gases are p-block elements. Also, solid helium crystallises in a hexagonal close-packed structure, which matches beryllium and magnesium in group 2, but not the other noble gases in ...
Generally, six noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon), one pnictogen (nitrogen), and one chemical compound (carbon dioxide) are considered inert gases. The term inert gas is context-dependent because several of the noble gases, including nitrogen and carbon dioxide, can be made to react under certain conditions. [1][2]
e. In the context of the periodic table a nonmetal is a chemical element that mostly lacks distinctive metallic properties. They range from colorless gases like hydrogen to shiny crystals like iodine. Physically, they are usually lighter (less dense) than elements that form metals and are often poor conductors of heat and electricity.