Metal xenon fluorides

The xenon fluorides are used as powerful fluorinating agents (reagents for attaching fluorine atoms to other substances). The tetrafluoride will even fluori-nate platinum metal ... 

The xenon fluorides, especially the difluoride, could also be used as calorimetric gases with possible applications for organic fluorides or metal carbonyls [e.g., Mo(CO)6 — Mo(CO)BFg. — MoF ]. 

Of course, most reactive metal fluorides, such as cobalt trifluoride [268] and vanadium pentafluoride, will react with alkenes but the reactions can be very difficult to control, except for haloalkenes [269]. Much easier control is possible with xenon fluorides [137], the reactivity decreasing in the series XeFe > Xep4 > Xep2. Since the first report of the use of xenon difluoride for the addition of fluorine to double bonds, many studies have been published and reviewed [54, 135] (Figure 3.61). 

Many of the nonmetal fluorides interact with strong fluoride ion acceptors, such as BF3 and the metal penta-fluorides, to form adducts. Work in these laboratories had indicated that such adducts of the xenon and iodine fluorides may be adequately formulated as salts, e.g., [XeF] + [RuF6]-, [XejFsJ + iAsFe]-, [XeFo]+-[RuF ]-, IF4] + [SbF6]-, and [IF6] + [AsF6]-. - ... 

The bulk metal is oxidized by air or steam only at high temperatures, but Raney nickel (see Section 21.2) is pyrophoric. Nickel reacts with F2 to give a coherent coating of NiF2 which prevents further attack hence the use of nickel and its alloy Monel metal in apparatus for handling F2 or xenon fluorides. With CI2, Bt2 and I2, Ni(II) halides are formed. At elevated temperatures, Ni reacts with P, S and B and a range of different phosphide (see Section 14.6), sulfide and boride (see Section 12.10) phases are known. 

The gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe were called inert when they were thought to be completely inactive. Their name was changed to noble after the xenon fluorides were discovered in 1962. This was because metals having a low activity (but nevertheless some activity) like gold and platinum are sometimes called noble as they are used for noble purposes. The change was inept. Inert need not imply complete inactivity, and noble is hardly apt (commoners breathe in these gases no less than nobles do ). 

Laboratories and in 1966 the blue helium-cadmium metal vapor ion laser discovered by W. T. Silfvast, G. R. Fowles, and B. D. Hopkins at the University of Utah. The first liquid laser in the form of a fluorescent dye was discovered that same year by R P. Sorokin and J. R. Lankard of the IBM Research Laboratories, leading to the development of broadly tunable lasers. The first of the rare-gas-halide excimer lasers was first observed in xenon fluoride by J. J. Ewing and C. Brau of the Avco-Everett Research Laboratory in 1975. In 1976, J. M. J. Madey and co-workers at Stanford University developed the first fi ee-electron laser amplifier operating at the infi ared carbon dioxide laser wavelength. In 1985 the first soft X-ray laser was successfully demonstrated in a highly ionized selenium plasma by D. Matthews and a large number of co-workers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

K [14881-07-3], Rb [72151 -96-3], and Cs [72138-72-8]), are prepared by reaction of elemental fluorine, chlorine trifluoride, or xenon difluoride and a mixture of nickel fluoride and alkaH metal fluorides or other metal haHdes (16,17). If the fluorination is carried out using mixed fluorides, a lower temperature can be used, yields are quantitative, and the final products are of high purity. Bis(tetrafluoroammonium) hexafluoronickelate [6310540-8], (NE 2N iF6> prepared from Cs2NiF3 and NE SbE by a metathesis in anhydrous HE, is also known (18). 

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