Bartlett reacted PtF₆ with oxygen and obtained a very curious compound. The oxygen is contained in it as the positively charged molecule O_2, a molecule which has lost one electron. Now what is so strange about that? The strange thing is that it is very difficult indeed to tear an electron away from the oxygen molecule, as this requires a great deal of energy. Platinum hexafluoride was found to be capable of removing an electron from the oxygen molecule. Removal of an electron from the outer shells of inert gas atoms also requires a great deal of energy. There is a regularity here according to which the heavier the inert gas the smaller the amount of energy required. And it was found easier to make a xenon atom part with one of its electrons than to tear one away from the oxygen molecule.

   This is where the most interesting begins! Bartlett decided to make platinum hexaflouride steal an electron from the xenon atom. And he was successful - the world's first chemical compound of an inert gas was born in 1962. This is what it looks like: XePtF₆. And it is fairly stable. Nothing like the exotic compounds of helium with platinum or mercury.

   This hardly noticeable grain immediately sprouted out. The sprout, which began to grow like bamboo, became a new trend in chemistry, the chemistry of the inert gases. Only yesterday many serious scientists were very sceptical. Today they have at their disposal more than thirty real chemical compounds of the inert gases, mainly fluorides of xenon, krypton, and radon. And so the myth of the infallibility of the outer electron shell of the noble gases collapsed.

   What about the molecular structure of the various compounds of the inert gases? Scientists are only just beginning to understand this. It turns out that atoms can possess a much larger supply of valence forces than was thought previously. Formerly the valence concept was based on recognition of the special stability, infallibility of the octet shell. But now scientists came up against the question of whether everything was quite so clear in these theories? Maybe it will fall to your lot, dear readers, to help disclose new laws in them.

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