Xenon tetrafluoride production

Xenon tetrafluoride forms intercalates with graphite at room temperature (S19). Powder and Grafoil have both been used, and products have been isolated having stoichiometries C2sXeF4 and C4oXeF4 that apparently correspond to the second- and third-stage compounds, re-... 

These products are unstable at about room temperature and several are highly explosive. Xenon tetrafluoride and XeF6 react with HS03F as follows ... 

The diamagnetic brick-red solid of composition XePt2Fio, formed along with xenon tetrafluoride in the pyrolysis of Xe(PtF6)i.8, contains the platinum in the -f-4 oxidation state, since interaction of the material with cesium fluoride in iodine pentafluoride gives a yellow product. X-ray powder photographs of which... 

Within a few weeks of the discovery ( > of xenon tetrafluoride by Claassen, Selig and Malm, they and their collaborators at the Argonne National Laboratory, had also prepared and characterized a difluoride < > and a hexafluoride (2 ). These compounds were soon confirmed in a number of other laboratories. Ali thee fluorides, which are white crystalline solids at room temperature are preparable from fluorine and xenon, the nature of the product depending upon the ratio of the reactants and the temperature, the tetrafluoride being thermally more stable than the hexafluoride... 

Xenon tetrafluoride has been prepared by a number of methods. Irradiation of a mixture of xenon and fluorine with ultraviolet light produces xenon difluoride if the reaction product is immediately condensed from the gas phase. However, if the di fluoride is allowed to remain in the reaction zone, the tetrafluoride is produced. Passage of an electric discharge through a mixture of xenon and fluorine also produces xenon tetrafluoride. Perhaps the best method is the one in which xenon and fluorine are heated together either in a closed system or in a flow system. The method which uses a closed system allows a somewhat better control of purity and is described below. 

Preparation by hydrolysis of either xenon tetrafluoride or xenon hexafluoride. Oxidizing action,2 Xenic acid reacts readily with u/c-diols in neutral or alkaline solution the products are xenon (gas) and carboxylic acids. 

Xenon tetrafluoride was first prepared by heating a gaseous mixture of xenon and fluorine under moderate pressure. However, the product obtained by this method is always contaminated with xenon difluoride and hexafluoride, which are in chemical equilibrium with xenon tetrafluoride. Xenon tetrafluoride obtained in this way can be purified by subsequent chemical purification with arsenic pentafluoride." ... 

Like xenon hexafluoride or xenon tetrafluoride, krypton difluoride reacts with water, giving highly explosive hydrolysis products. The best way for disposing of krypton difluoride is to allow it to react with carbon tetrachloride (see caution note under xenon tetrafluoride procedure). 

Xenon difluoride dissolves in water, yielding a solution which contains undissociated XeFa molecules which have a half-life of about 7 hours at 0°. It eventually hydrolyzes to yield the expected products, xenon, hydrogen fluoride, and oxygen. The hydrolysis reactions of the tetrafluoride and hexafluoride are somewhat more complicated. The addition of the stoichiometric amount of water to the hexafluoride results in the formation of xenon oxide tetrafluoride. Hydrolysis of either fluoride with an excess of water or acid yields in solution a stable xenon(VI) species, which has been shown to be hydrated xenon trioxide. Removal of the excess water leaves xenon trioxide as a solid residue. Inasmuch as this solid is an extremely sensitive explosive, such solutions must be handled with care. 

All the xenon fluorides react with water to form various products. For example, in aqueous solution, xenon hexafluoride is first hydrolyzed to xenon oxide tetrafluoride, XeOp4, which is further hydrolyzed to xenon trioxide. The reactions are as follows ... 

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