Xenon dioxide, or xenon(IV) oxide, is a compound of
xenon and
oxygen with formula XeO
2 which was synthesized in 2011. It is synthesized at 0 °C by hydrolysis of
xenon tetrafluoride in aqueous sulfuric acid:
XeF4 + 2H2O -> XeO2 + 4HF
Structure
has an extended (chain or network) structure in which xenon and oxygen have
coordination numbers of four and two respectively. The geometry at xenon is
square planar, consistent with
VSEPR theory for four ligands and two lone pairs (or AX
4E
2 in the notation of VSEPR theory).
In addition, the existence of an XeO
2 molecule was predicted by an
ab initio quantum chemistry method
''Ab initio'' quantum chemistry methods are computational chemistry methods based on quantum chemistry. The term was first used in quantum chemistry by Robert Parr and coworkers, including David Craig in a semiempirical study on the exci ...
several years earlier by Pyykkö and Tamm, but these authors did not consider an extended structure.
Properties
is a yellow-orange solid.
It is an unstable compound, with a
half-life of about two minutes, disproportionating into
and xenon gas. Its structure and identity was confirmed by cooling it to −78
°C
The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The d ...
so that
Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy () (named after Indian physicist C. V. Raman) is a spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Raman sp ...
could be performed before it decomposed.
:3 XeO
2 → Xe + 2 XeO
3
References
{{Noble gas compounds
Oxides
Xenon(IV) compounds
Inorganic compounds
Substances discovered in the 2010s