All of the noble gases, group 18, have eight valence electrons in its outer shell (excluding helium which only has two). which of these would represent the oxidation number of the noble gases such as xenon and argon?

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Chemistry

Robert

29 December, 15:15

All of the noble gases, group 18, have eight valence electrons in its outer shell (excluding helium which only has two). which of these would represent the oxidation number of the noble gases such as xenon and argon?

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Answers (1)

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Xavier Cross · Answer 1

The oxidation state is the number of electrons that the element increase or decrease to its valence shell when it forms a compound.

Noble gases do not tend to form other compounds, because they are very stable due to they have the valence shell complete (2 electrons in the case of He and 8 electrons in the case of the others).

So, usually they have oxidation state 0. That is the general case.

They are some exceptions where Xe and Kr react with highly electronegative elements (F, Cl and O) but the general answer is that the oxidation number of the noble gases is 0.