A short chapter on noble gas chemistry is generally a part of undergraduate texts and courses with an emphasis on descriptive inorganic chemistry. Discussions often begin with Neil Bartlett's historic experiments on Xe and PtF6, which laid the foundation of the field. The role of XeF2as an electrophilic fluorinating agent is also frequently mentioned. Challengingly, the chemistry of xenon also includes a fair number of stoichiometrically complex reactions, such as the following:(1) Disproportionation of xenate in alkaline solution:2 HXeO4- + 2 OH� ? XeO64� + Xe + O2 + 2 H2O;(2) Hydrolysis of XeF4:6 XeF4 + 12 H2O ? 2 XeO3 + 4 Xe + 3 O2+ 24 HFAlthough at first glance such complicated stoichiometries may not seem amenable to intelligent mechanistic thinking, arrow-pushing does explain the processes remarkably well. Choosing xenon chemistry as our arena, we will show how arrow-pushing can transform a lecture-based, descriptive inorganic course into one emphasizing logic and problem-solving.

Curing xenonphobia: Making sense of xenon's complex chemistry with arrow-pushing

248th National Meeting (2014)

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