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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]
The order of elements by volume fraction (which is approximately molecular mole fraction) in the atmosphere is nitrogen (78.1%), oxygen (20.9%), [20] argon (0.96%), followed by (in uncertain order) carbon and hydrogen because water vapor and carbon dioxide, which represent most of these two elements in the air, are variable components. Sulfur ...
As a side effect of the process, some carbon nuclei fuse with additional helium to produce a stable isotope of oxygen and energy: 12 6 C + 4 2 He → 16 8 O + γ (+7.162 MeV) Nuclear fusion reactions of helium with hydrogen produces lithium-5, which also is highly unstable, and decays back into smaller nuclei with a half-life of 3.7 × 10 −22 s.
Helium is the least water-soluble monatomic gas, [96] and one of the least water-soluble of any gas (CF 4, SF 6, and C 4 F 8 have lower mole fraction solubilities: 0.3802, 0.4394, and 0.2372 x 2 /10 −5, respectively, versus helium's 0.70797 x 2 /10 −5), [97] and helium's index of refraction is closer to unity than that of any other gas. [98]
Atomicity is the total number of atoms present in a molecule of an element. For example, each molecule of oxygen (O 2) is composed of two oxygen atoms. Therefore, the atomicity of oxygen is 2. [1] In older contexts, atomicity is sometimes equivalent to valency. Some authors also use the term to refer to the maximum number of valencies observed ...
The other class is a cycle of reactions called the triple-alpha process, which consumes only helium, and produces carbon. [1] The alpha process most commonly occurs in massive stars and during supernovae. Both processes are preceded by hydrogen fusion, which produces the helium that fuels both the triple-alpha process and the alpha ladder ...
A major advantage is that this gas is noncombustible. But the use of helium has some disadvantages, too: The diffusion issue shared with hydrogen (though, as helium's molecular radius (138 pm) is smaller, it diffuses through more materials than hydrogen [4]). Helium is expensive. Although abundant in the universe, helium is very scarce on Earth.
It is the lightest element and, at standard conditions, is a gas of diatomic molecules with the formula H 2, sometimes called dihydrogen, [11] hydrogen gas, molecular hydrogen, or simply hydrogen. It is colorless, odorless, [ 12 ] non-toxic, and highly combustible .